A shooting at a Brooklyn bar early Sunday morning killed three people and wounded eight others, sending patrons diving for cover and running for the exits, according to the police and a witness.
The police said gunmen fired the shots at the bar, Taste of the City Lounge at 903 Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights, around 3:30 a.m. When officers arrived, they found eight men and three women who had been shot, their ages ranging from 27 to 61, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said on Sunday at a news conference.
Three men were pronounced dead at the scene: a 27-year-old, a 35-year-old, and another whose age was not given, the police said. The other eight victims were taken to hospitals with injuries that Commissioner Tisch said were for now “non-life-threatening.”
No suspects have been arrested in the shooting, which the commissioner said was the result of a “dispute.”
“It’s a terrible thing that happened this morning,” Commissioner Tisch said. “But we’re going to investigate it and get to the bottom of what went down.”
Taste of the City, a restaurant and bar that serves Caribbean food, is about half a block from a transit police station on Franklin Avenue. On its website and on social media, the lounge advertises Haitian tacos, two-for-one drinks on Friday nights, D.J.s and dancing.
The violence erupted with little warning.
Marie Desir, 40, said she had gone to the bar at 1 a.m. with a friend. Two hours later, they were sitting at a table when they heard gunshots. People scrambled to the floor, she said. Ms. Desir ran for the exit, leaving behind her wallet and her phone.
“I was like, ‘Oh, God, I’m dying today,’” she said. “I ran out to save my life.”
At 8:45 a.m., she remained at the scene, crying and looking for her friend, who had been separated from her in the chaos.
“I want to know what happened to my friend,” she said. His car was still where he had parked it.
It had seemed like a normal night at Taste of the City, said James Jones, who left the establishment around 3 a.m. Not long after he arrived to his home across the street, a friend called and said something terrible had happened. He returned to the street and saw carnage.
“People over here shot, people over there shot,” Mr. Jones said.
Others stood outside near the bar, some shaking and seemingly in shock, he said.
The 71st Precinct, which includes the block where the shooting occurred, recorded three shootings between the start of the year and Aug. 10, a 62 percent drop from the same period last year. Citywide, there have been 441 shootings in that period.
Crime in New York City has dropped steadily from the levels recorded during the pandemic, according to Police Department data. The city had the fewest shooting episodes and victims on record in the first seven months of this year; July had only 75 shootings, breaking a record low for that month set in 2017.
“We have the lowest number of shooting incidents and shooting victims seven months into the year that we’ve seen on record in the City of New York,” Commissioner Tisch said at the morning news conference. “Something like this is, of course, thank God, an anomaly.”
Officers recovered at least 36 shell casings from multiple guns after the shooting, the police said. A separate firearm was discovered at the corner of Eastern Parkway, which investigators believe may be related to the shooting.
Pierre Tutu was standing on Franklin Avenue near his parked car when he heard gunshots inside the lounge around 3:20 a.m., he said.
“There were a lot of them,” said Mr. Tutu, 50. “People were flying all over the place trying to save their lives.”
Mr. Tutu sped south away from the scene, he said. He returned not long after, and saw several people with gunshot wounds outside the restaurant.
“I saw people, shot, all over the place,” he said. “Sitting, waiting for help, screaming, crying.”
Maia Coleman and Ali Watkins contributed reporting.
Maria Cramer is a Times reporter covering the New York Police Department and crime in the city and surrounding areas.
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