Three people were killed and eight others wounded after gunfire erupted inside a crowded nightclub in Brooklyn early Sunday morning, police said.
The shooting took place just before 3:30 a.m. at Taste of the City Lounge in Crown Heights following what investigators described as “a dispute.” New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters that multiple weapons were believed to have been used in the attack.
“It’s a terrible shooting that occurred in the city of New York,” Tisch said at a press briefing. Officers recovered at least 36 shell casings from the scene along with a firearm found on a nearby street, she added, reported Associated Press.
The victims included eight men and three women, ranging in age from 27 to 61. All were taken to local hospitals, and their injuries are considered non-life-threatening, according to authorities.
Despite the scale of the attack, police stressed that the incident comes during a period of historically low gun violence in New York City. “We have the lowest numbers of shooting incidents and shooting victims seven months into the year that we’ve seen on record,” Tisch noted. “Something like this is, of course, an anomaly — a terrible thing that happened this morning — but we’re going to investigate and get to the bottom of what went down.”
No arrests have been announced as detectives continue their investigation into the nightclub tragedy.