CROWN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn (WABC) — One person was shot and another two were slashed near the beginning of the parade route for the annual New York Caribbean Carnival in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn Monday.
The incident happened just before 5:30 p.m. as festivities were ending, but many people were still out enjoying the celebrations near the corner of Eastern Parkway and Utica Avenue.
Officials say three people were injured when a fight between two groups broke out at 1187 Eastern Parkway, near the beginning of the parade route.
A 19-year-old man was shot in the buttocks, a 16-year-old was slashed in the leg and a 20-year-old man was slashed in the hand.
“We had a couple groups meet up,” said John Chell of the NYPD Patrol Bureau. “We don’t know what caused the fight. Shots rang out, two people got stabbed, one shot in the back. We recovered a firearm but the cops were there quickly.”
Two of the victims were taken to Brookdale Hospital, while one refused medical attention. All of the victims are expected to be ok.
An FDNY fire engine parked on the corner of Eastern Parkway was also struck in the windshield by a stray bullet.
No firefighters were injured.
No arrests have been made so far.
Before the weekend began, police vowed to keep festivities safe, even deploying drones to assist officers on 911 calls.
By the parade’s kickoff Monday morning, the Mayor Eric Adams was already declaring victory.
“This is going to go down thus far as one of the safest carnival weekends in the city,” he said.
During the parade, police took four guns off the street, including the one used in the shooting at Eastern and Utica.
Authorities say there were about 5,000 people on that corner.
That’s where police deployed a different drone, tethered to an SUV, which they say helped visualize where to deploy resources. In minutes, the intersection was cleared.
“We had a large crowd on this corner, there was definitely gonna be retaliation, we called out our drone technology to see what we’re looking at density wise and now you see what happened,” Chell said. “Pull the drone out, put some cops on the corner and now we’re much safer than we were an hour ago. And that’s the name of the game.”
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