One man died and two others were wounded when a gunman fired what looked like an assault weapon outside a Queens catering hall early Sunday morning, video obtained by the Daily News shows.
The clash began as an argument in a parking lot outside a banquet hall on Cross Bay Blvd. near Desarc Road in Ozone Park about 5 a.m., cops said.
People gather after a triple shooting outside a Queens catering hall early Sunday morning. (Daily News Exclusive)
One man pulled out a long gun and opened fire, hitting a 38-year-old man in the chest, cops said. Medics took him to Jamaica Hospital, but he couldn’t be saved.
“We started hearing shots, you know, boom, boom, boom,” said Kaled Alamarie, 51, who lives next door. “The guy that did the shooting, it was an assault rifle. People were panicky, shaking. But not screaming. They wanted an exit, to get out.”
Surveillance footage of shooting in a parking lot outside a banquet hall on Cross Bay Blvd. near Desarc Road in Ozone Park (New York Daily News Exclusive)
Surveillance video shows the gunman firing rapidly with what appears to be an assault rifle.
“I heard at least 20 shots, but then when we were talking to the police they said it was around 30,” said Alamarie, whose bedroom window faces the shooting scene.
“I think [the shooters] were getting closer and the shots, the volume got higher. And I was like, ‘S---, should I move or should I stay?’ Then I just called [911] right away,” he said.
“I saw the guy running this way with the rifle. . . . He was running wild. I was hoping that he wasn’t gonna catch me watching him through the window. You know I was worried he might retaliate.”
Alamarie thinks the killer was targeting the 38-year-old because he kept shooting at him after the victim ducked under a vehicle.
The victim screamed out, “I got shot! I got shot!” as he bled, Alamarie said.
NYPD detectives work on the scene where three men were shot, one fatally, by a gunman who appeared to be firing an assault weapon outside a Queens catering hall early Sunday. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)
A 32-year-old man shot in the face showed up on his own at Jamaica Hospital and another 32-year-old man with multiple gunshot wounds to his right leg got to Kings County Hospital by private means, cops said. Both were in stable condition.
The shooter got away and had not been reported caught by late Sunday.
Cops recovered a handgun at the scene, but its role in the shooting was not immediately clear.
Alamarie said the catering hall often operates as a nightclub and is a magnet for trouble and violence. He and other neighbors regularly complain to NYPD officials, he said.
“Sooner or later, really something needs to happen,” he said. “I’m hoping this is an inflection point, that they will shut this place down.”
As of June 12, the city has seen a more than 11% drop in homicides so far this year, with 185 killings compared with 209 in the same period of 2021.
Shootings are down 10% citywide, with 559 incidents compared with 627 by this time last year.
Sunday’s shooting is the second homicide this year in the 106th Precinct, where the club is located. On May 4, a gunman shot and killed 51-year-old Anna Torres, later telling investigators that he killed her because he believed her tarot card readings were the work of a “witch” and that she put a deadly curse on him.
Copyright © 2021, New York Daily News
Copyright © 2021, New York Daily News