Mosley’s decision came following yet another deadly J’ouvert, the all-night party before the parade – this year which included four shootings and two deaths, despite police doubling their numbers to patrol the event and putting up scores of floodlights all throughout Crown Heights/Flatbush/Lefferts Gardens area.
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The NYPD said they responded to a 911 call at 3:50 a.m. Monday reporting a man and woman shot near Empire Boulevard and Flatbush Avenue. He was taken to hospital but died from his wounds. A 73-year-old woman was also shot in the arm as she sat on a bench outside a Wendy’s. WNBC-TV reports he’s accused of firing shots during a gang-related gun battle past year in which Carey Gabay was fatally shot by stray gunfire.
Reginald Moise, 20, is accused of fatally shooting the St. John’s University student, Tiarah Poyau, in the face on Monday, police said.
At least two others were shot and wounded but expected to survive, police said. She was pronounced dead at the hospital.
The shootings that occurred were again at the J’Ouvert pre-dawn celebration in Brooklyn, NY – which has absolutely nothing to do with the West Indian American Day Carnival, now the New York Caribbean Carnival. No arrests have been made.
Mosley said that while the J’Ouvert event is a “celebration of cultural heritage”, it has “become synonymous with gun violence”.
Two people were killed early Monday despite an expanded police presence at the annual pre-dawn festivities. “All options are on the table”, he said. The department also added 200 light towers, a big increase from the 40 it had a year ago.
New York City announced that they were taking unprecedented precautions for the J’Ouvert Parade 2016 festivities after Carey Gabay, a senior aide to Gov. Cuomo was killed at last year’s celebration.
The J’Ouvert festival, a tradition that usually turns out more than 250,000 revelers, has been unable to shake its reputation for violence in recent years. Crown Heights has been a nexus of Caribbean culture in the city since the 1930s, and once the parade moved to Eastern Parkway, it expanded into an worldwide event, incorporating food and traditions from other Caribbean islands.
A witness in the building where Moise ditched the gun identified him to police, and the pieces were soon in place for charges.
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Mayor de Blasio promised that there would be “the most extensive security ever” at this year’s J’Ouvert celebration, a year after Gabay was shot and killed at the overnight festival in Brooklyn.
