At least eight people were wounded around Brooklyn’s West Indian Day Parade route, despite an NYPD deployment numbering in the thousands, the New York Post reported.
Three people were shot, three were stabbed and two were slashed during Monday’s festivities, the New York Post reported. The attacks stretched from early-morning J’Ouvert events into the afternoon parade.
Police shut down the parade at 5:30 p.m. By late Monday afternoon, all eight victims were listed in stable condition, though one man had initially been critical.
Just after 4 p.m., a 37-year-old woman was shot in the leg along Eastern Parkway. A 19-year-old man was grazed by bullets on both legs.
A separate shooting around the same time wounded a 24-year-old man near Nostrand Avenue. Police were still searching for a shooter in the other afternoon attack.
A witness identified as Edward described a fight near one of the shooting scenes before he heard gunfire.
“There were a bunch of people fighting at the top of the block.... And then all of the sudden, you hear, ‘Pop, pop.’”
Another bystander said the wounded woman grimaced but did not cry. That witness also offered a blunt judgment: “It’s no fun anymore. They won’t stop the shooting.”
The afternoon attacks followed a cluster of knife injuries around the early J’Ouvert festivities. The festival began at 6 a.m. and continued until the parade started at 11 a.m.
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Around 5:48 a.m., a 32-year-old man and a 23-year-old person were stabbed in the neck near the route. A 36-year-old person was stabbed in the face.
A 20-year-old person suffered a slash to the chin during the same early-morning period. Emergency Medical Services responded, and several victims went to Kings County Hospital.
The 32-year-old man was initially listed in critical condition. Police said no arrests had been made in those cases at the time described.
At about 6 a.m., a 25-year-old man was slashed in the face near Eastern Parkway and Nostrand Avenue. He reached Interfaith Medical Center by private transportation.
Police also reported no arrest in that case. The Post did not identify motives for the shootings or knife attacks, and the victims’ full names were not released.
The lack of immediate answers matters. A city cannot measure public safety only by staffing plans when victims still leave a major event for hospital treatment.
Before the festivities, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the department planned one of its largest annual deployments. Thousands of officers would cover the routes and nearby communities from Sunday night through Monday.
Tisch described the scale of the operation in a statement issued Friday:
“Thousands of NYPD cops will be on the parade routes and in the surrounding neighborhoods from Sunday night through Monday. This is one of our department’s largest deployments of the year at this time.”
The manpower was substantial. Yet eight people still suffered gunshot or knife wounds, and the NYPD ended the parade at 5:30 p.m.
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Tisch also said six people had been shot during the previous year’s festivities. Monday’s injuries therefore did not arrive without warning about the event’s public-safety risks.
The parade’s history includes several fatal shootings. In 2011, 56-year-old Brooklyn mother Denise Gay was killed while shielding her family from gunfire outside her Crown Heights home.
In 2015, Carey Gabay, an aide to then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was fatally shot in the head after being caught in gang crossfire during the festivities.
Two more people were fatally shot in the chest during the 2016 celebration. They were a 22-year-old St. John’s University student and a 17-year-old.
Those deaths give Monday’s violence a longer and graver context. Families attending a public celebration should not have to treat shootings and knife attacks as a recurring risk.
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Police presence remains necessary, especially at a large event with a record of violence. But deployment figures alone do not settle the issue when attackers escape immediate arrest.
The public deserves answers about who committed these attacks and why. Without accountability, another large security plan becomes a promise rather than protection.
Public celebrations cannot become places where ordinary people are expected to accept violence. Order requires more than staffing announcements; it requires consequences.