Elected officials and other Brooklyn leaders are condemning the violence that erupted as the West Indian Day Parade came to a close Monday — and are calling for more gun restrictions to avoid similar incidents at big New York City events.
“After a day of celebration for the community and city, the plague of gun violence struck,” Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said in a statement Tuesday. “The best way to prevent that violence is to stop someone from picking up a gun in the first place, in part by strongly limiting access to these weapons of war.”
Police said seven people were wounded in four separate incidents Monday evening at or near the annual parade along Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights. All seven were expected to survive, and police arrested a man in connection with a shooting that injured a 53-year-old man and 40-year-old woman, according to NYPD officials. Officials said the violence started after 5:30 p.m., when someone shot two people near Utica Avenue and Eastern Parkway after the parade’s final float passed through.
The parade, which celebrates Caribbean culture and the city’s large West Indian community, usually draws hundreds of thousands of people to Central Brooklyn and unfolds alongside parties, cookouts and informal street festivals throughout Labor Day weekend. But in recent years shootings and stabbings have happened around those events — including last year, when a 25-year-old man was fatally shot and several others were injured.
Pastor Gilford Monrose, who serves as faith adviser to Mayor Eric Adams, said in an interview Tuesday that the weekend’s revelries were relatively peaceful, despite Monday evening’s incidents. He said the people who carried guns near the parade route were at fault for the violence.
“We can’t sugarcoat what they’re doing,” he said. “What they’re doing is not just normal violence. What they’re doing is causing terrorism on a community that is beloved and who is enjoying their culture.”
In a statement, the NYPD acknowledged “a tough end to Labor Day weekend,” but said gun violence citywide is at its lowest level “in recorded history” for the first eight months of the year. Police have been focused on removing illegal guns from the streets, arresting alleged gang members and deploying officers based on public safety data, the statement said.
Crown Heights residents said Tuesday they were disappointed about the shootings and stabbing near the West Indian Day Parade, but overall felt the weekend was peaceful.
“Yesterday it was really pretty chill, really relaxed,” Ricardo Lima, who’s lived about a block from the parade route for three years, said. “In general it’s pretty safe here, everyone is rather neighborly, even when it’s loud.”
Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who joined in the festivities, said he was saddened the violence coincided with an otherwise jubilant celebration.
“It breaks my heart to see violence take place on a day meant to uplift the joy of community and the beauty of our cultures,” he said.
