One person is dead and eight are injured after a mass shooting in Harlem, New York City.
The shooting took place early on Monday morning. Seven men and two women were shot near the intersection of East 139th Street and Fifth Avenue at around 12.40am, the NYPD said.
Officers found five people shot on a footpath under the Madison Avenue Bridge, Brian McGee of the NYPD said during a press briefing.
The victims found on the footpath were taken to area hospitals by first responders while the remaining four victims arrived at Harlem hospital on their own.
Police said that a 21-year-old man died of his injuries at the Lincoln Medical Center. The head of media relations for the Houston Baptist University athletics programme told The Daily Beast that Darius Lee, 21, was a basketball player at the school.
Jeff Sutton told the outlet that Mr Lee had been studying sports management.
“The upcoming season would have been his senior year and he was the leading returning scorer in our conference,” Mr Sutton added.
Mr Lee graduated from the St Raymond High School for Boys in 2018. The school’s athletics programme wrote in a post on Instagram: “We are heartbroken and devastated to learn of the senseless passing of Darius Lee, class of 2018. Our prayers and condolences go out to his family at this time, and we pray for his eternal rest with our Lord. Aside from being a tremendous basketball star, he was a phenomenal human being, and a young man living such a positive life, succeeding in school, on the court, and in life. These senseless acts of violence need to stop…such a tragedy.”
The eight other victims are thought to have non-life threatening injuries.
Mr McGee said that the shooting seemed to have taken place at a barbecue or social gathering.
Early on Monday, events leading up to the shooting were still under investigation.
“It’s Father’s Day weekend,” Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell told the press on Monday. “It’s a weekend where people were supposed to be able to enjoy themselves with their families.”
“The emboldened individuals responsible for this are exactly who our officers are battling every day to make our city safe,” he added, according to the New York Post.
The victims ranged in age from 21 to 42. A resident in the area told ABC7, “I was sitting in my living room and all I heard was sporadic shots ringing”.
“It was like, ‘Prong, prong, prong!’. And then it stopped and picked back up, ‘Brum, brum!’ You know, it was so many shots,” she added. “First I thought it was fireworks and then I thought, ‘Nah, it can’t be.’”
Several of the victims were shot in the torso but people also suffered leg wounds, as well as back and finger injuries. A handgun was found at the scene.
No arrests have been made so far and police are requesting help from the public as the investigation continues.
