Gun Violence Mars NYC West Indian Labor Day Parade

NEW YORK — Several incidents of gun violence marred the annual New York West Indian Labor Day Parade on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. In all, more than 7 people were shot in and around the parade, according to the New York Post.

One man was shot during the jurvee, pre-carnival celebration at a McDonalds near the parade at 6am and another man was shot on Eastern Parkway after the celebration. Three men were shot and killed and a police man was shot and injured after the parade a few blocks away from the site.

Gothamist reports:

Over 40 bullets were fired last night in a Crown Heights shooting near the intersection of Franklin Avenue and Park Place, leaving three people dead, injuring two NYPD officers, and putting a bloody exclamation point on a very violent Labor Day weekend. Police say career criminal Leroy Webster, 32, emerged from a Park Place building around 9 p.m. and opened fire on Eusi Johnson, 29, who was walking with his cousin. Johnson was fatally shot in the neck, and bystander Denise Gay was shot in the head as she sat on her stoop with her daughter. Gay, 56, died from her wounds.

Officers who happened to be nearby because of the West Indian Parade responded quickly, and Webster allegedly opened fire on them, hitting Officer Omar Medina in the arm and Officer Avichaim Dicken, 29, whose elbow was grazed by a bullet. Webster was fatally shot in the neck, “staggered a short way, bleeding profusely and died,” CBS 2 reports. Both officers are listed in stable condition, and at a press conference at the hospital last night, Mayor Bloomberg called it “a senseless murder and a painful reminder of what happens when elected officials in Washington fail to take the problem of illegal guns seriously.”