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Police are investigating an incident that left five people shot during New York’s West Indian American Day parade.
The shooting happened on Monday, Sept. 2, as “thousands of people were watching the parade” on a cement divider in Brooklyn, Chief of Patrol John Chell said during a press conference.
Chell believes that the shooting was an intentional act “by one person.” He added that there is no “active shooter or anything of that nature” for the community to be concerned about.
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The chief of patrol said the shooting would not interfere with the plans for the day.
“The parade is going on. It will go on until later on tonight,” Chell said added. “We have multiple cops working very hard this weekend, and working very hard today to keep this community and keep this parade safe. And we’ll be out here ‘till the wee hours of the morning doing just that — working hard, keeping this community safe.”
Chell also called upon the media and the public to assist in locating the person or persons involved in the Labor Day shooting.
“We do realize there is an abundance of video that was on that corner, in that group,” he said, urging anyone with footage or any related information to please call 1 (800) 577-TIPS.
Nancy Siesel via AP
“We need that video. We are going to solve this, but it’s going to take a lot of work,” he said before taking questions from reporters.
Speaking to the media, the chief of patrol said the shooting “was not random,” calling it “an intentional act” that consisted of “one person going into a group [and] firing his weapon.”
According to Chell, at this time, it’s too early to tell what led to the altercation.
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He added that it was also not yet known if the five people shot were the intended targets.
“We’re still working through that. When you fire a gun into a large crowd, we gotta figure out who was intended, who was not. We do not know that right now,” Chell said.
New York’s ABC 13 reported that the victims were four males and one female. Two were in critical condition and three had non-life-threatening injuries.
The suspect was described as a male 6’2″ to 6’3″ with a slim build, wearing a black bandana and brown shirt, who fled the scene of the shooting westbound on Eastern Parkway toward Classon Avenue, the news station added, citing police.
