1 killed, 5 wounded in shootings in Crown Heights, Brooklyn
CROWN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn (WABC) -- One person is dead and five others injured after three gunmen opened fire on them in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in the latest incident of gunfire in the borough.
The victims were part of a group of 10 to 12 people hanging out on President Street, near Franklin Avenue, when shots were fired just after 2:15 a.m. Wednesday.
Responding officers found four people shot.
A 19-year-old man shot in the back, a 35-year-old man shot in the arm, and a 19-year-old man and 25-year-old woman, both shot in the buttocks.
One neighbor said she heard several gunshots and recognized the young victims from her window.
"I immediately ran downstairs and I saw one of the boys I know in the car and i just started to pray." she said. "I just needed to pray for them."
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Two were taken to Methodist Hospital, two others taken to Kings County Hospital, all in stable condition.
While at Kings County Hospital, police encountered a woman, shot in the leg, who had driven a shot man to the hospital for treatment.
The 30-year-old man, shot in the torso, was pronounced dead. The 52-year-old woman, shot in the leg, is in stable condition.
The two were also shot while on President Street.
Witnesses told police up to three gunmen approached them, opened fire, and then fled on foot. No arrests have been made.
Neighbors say this formerly violent neighborhood has been turned around in recent years, and they don't want it to go back.
"We used to see bodies on the ground, I did," one resident said. "One night, for example, I heard shots and there was a body, a young person right on the ground, so i wouldn't want that to happen ever again."
NYPD Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison said they want to know if this was yet another gang shooting.
"60 to 70 percent of our shootings right now have a gang nexus to it, where this surge is from," he said. "I really can't speak about it right now, but we have to find a way to really suppress the gang violence that's really plaguing the city."
Mayor Bill de Blasio says he's adding police and other agencies this weekend with what he's calling the Central Brooklyn Violence Prevention Plan.
The violence comes after a rash of shootings in the borough and on the same day as an anti-violence march is planned.
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