A firefight broke out at a Friday night party in New York City, with plainclothes police officers firing at alleged shooters during the incident.
The ordeal began at around 11:35 p.m. at 219th Street and 130th Avenue in Laurelton, police said, according to the New York Post.
Officers from the New York City Police Department had been dispatched to the location due to a “potential for violence by some of the local street crews,” police said, the Post reported.
Plainclothes police were patrolling the residential area in an unmarked vehicle, WNBC reported.
That was when four individuals arrived at the venue and began firing toward the house party, according to the news station. Around 75-100 people were inside.
Footage accessed by WNBC showed multiple people climbing the fence of a neighbor’s home in a desperate attempt to flee from the gunfire. Some of the party attendees fired back at the assailants, the Post reported.
“I ran to the bathroom and looked through the back window, and the kids were screaming. They’re jumping over the fence into my backyard. So there’s blood on my fence in the side yard, and it was just total chaos,” a neighbor told WNBC.
Police exchanged fire with the four suspects, firing fourteen shots in total, according to the Post.
“There were shots fired, but they were fired out on the streets, not within the party itself,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Julian Phillips said.
Should laws on gun violence be made tougher?
“We do not know whether or not this is gang-related. This is still under investigation at this point,” he added.
Four individuals of ages 16,17,18 and 24 were hospitalized Saturday morning for gun wounds, WNBC reported. One among the quartet remained in critical condition.
The NYPD has taken those who were shot into custody, according to WNBC.
“We do not know how many rounds have been fired by the folks who started the shooting,” Phillips said, according to the Post.
“There were groups of people that came up on this party, and there were people inside the party, and that’s when this whole altercation started,” he said.
Police recovered weapons from the area.
Below are photos of the guns recovered at tonight’s shooting. pic.twitter.com/V6inDSDk8R
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) August 6, 2022
“Make no mistake, the lives of detectives are in grave danger when they go to work in this city. The politicians, prosecutors and judges who are releasing violent people back to the streets, combined with failed laws like ‘raise the age’ are endangering the very detectives who arrest these recidivists — and the New Yorkers they courageously serve. And these officials remain as unaccountable as the criminals,” Paul DiGiacomo, head of the Detectives Endowment Association, told the Post.
The Friday incident remains under investigation.
