At 3:22 a.m. on Aug. 17, as dozens of patrons enjoyed drinks and hookah amid the dull thump of club music, a man rushed to the front of a neon-lit Brooklyn bar to settle a dispute the way he saw fit.
The man, Marvin St. Louis, 19, had known he was entering rival territory when he arrived at the bar, Taste of the City Lounge in the Crown Heights neighborhood, with other members of his crew, according to federal prosecutors. After flashing derogatory signs at his adversary, who then confronted him, Mr. St. Louis produced a gun and opened fire.
The other man shot back, and others joined in, sending terrified patrons ducking for cover and rushing out of the lounge. Footage of the chaos, captured by security cameras, was released by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn on Wednesday. It offered the first visual depiction of the mass shooting in August, which killed three men and injured 10 other people, according to prosecutors. (The police said at the time that 14 had been injured.)
Mr. St. Louis and the man he shot at, Jamel Childs, 35, were both killed in the shooting. They were members of rival gangs, the 5-9 Brims and Folk Nation Gangster Disciples, according to prosecutors. The third man who died, Amadou Diallo, 27, was a patron caught in the crossfire.
“It’s almost a miracle that more people did not die,” Dana Rehnquist, a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York, said in court on Wednesday.
Another man who was at the bar that night, Elijah Roy, now faces federal charges in connection with the shooting. Prosecutors accused him on Wednesday of violent assault in aid of racketeering. In the video, Mr. Roy, 25, who prosecutors said was a member of the 5-9 Brims, fires at least two shots as he falls down and rolls around underneath a bar table.
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The post Man Charged After Mass Shooting at Brooklyn Bar That Was Caught on Video appeared first on New York Times.
