The annual celebration of the West Indian Day Parade in Brooklyn culminated in a riot of violence after a day of jovial festivities.
The West Indian Day Parade Carnival is celebrated to commemorate West Indian culture in Crown Heights, Brooklyn on the first Monday of September every year.
This year, the parade was organized on September 1, 2025.
But the celebratory night became a nightmare as six individuals got shot and another slashed in a series of isolated events along the dispersal path.
The violent incidents occurred within a two-hour span in Crown heights.
Despite the high security measures imposed by the New York City Police Department (NYPD), the violence still erupted.
First shooting was reported at about 5:35 p.m. (local time) on Eastern Parkway, where a man in his 20s was shot in the leg.
In an hour or two another man was cut with a cutting instrument.
The most severe incident happened at around 7:00 p.m. (local time) outside a restaurant on Nostrand Avenue, where a man of 53 years age was severely wounded after being shot through the neck and leg.
The other shooting victim who survived is a 40-year-old woman who was shot in the ankle.
The police arrested a suspect while the potential connections between the events remain unknown.
The bloodshed occurred despite what law enforcers had billed as the biggest police operation ever organized in the city, with 13 security checkpoints and metal detectors.
The incident overshadowed the popular cultural event, which attracts hundreds of thousands of people and is featured in the summer events list of the city.