At least 10 people were injured in New York City late Wednesday night when three or four men fired about 30 bullets into a crowd, the police said.
The shooting took place outside an “upscale private event space” in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, Philip Rivera, the Police Department’s chief of patrol, told reporters. The address he gave matched that of the Amazura Concert Hall. About 90 people were inside the venue at the time, he said, and about 15 others were waiting in a line outside.
Chief Rivera said that three or four gunmen had fired toward the crowd as they approached the venue, striking several people, and then escaped in a car with out-of-state plates.
He said the victims, six women and four men whose ages ranged from about 16 to 20, were expected to recover. The police were not investigating the shooting as a terrorist attack, he added.
A New York Times photographer who arrived at the scene minutes after the shooting on Wednesday night saw shell casings on the street near the venue and a heavy police presence as people filed out of the space.
A woman who answered the phone at the concert hall early Thursday morning said that no shots had been fired inside. She declined to give her full name. The venue often hosts electronic music shows, hip-hop concerts and wrestling matches.
In a statement on social media Thursday, the venue described the attack as an “unfortunate isolated incident” and a “senseless act.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Thursday that the shooting had happened outside a memorial for a teenager who was killed by gun violence.
“This cannot be our normal,” she said in a social media post.
The event was in remembrance of Taearion Mungo, according to a police official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. Taearion was 16 when he was fatally shot near his home in Brooklyn on Oct. 26, the police said at the time.
Mayor Eric Adams also condemned Wednesday’s attack, writing on social media, “We are determined to bring these dangerous individuals to justice and get illegal guns off our streets.”
On Thursday, tourniquets, disposable gloves, police tape and blood stains covered the sidewalk in front of the venue. Neighborhood residents said the club, whose exterior is adorned with a 25-foot-tall lion’s head, was a hot spot for violence and rowdy behavior, particularly on weekend nights.
In April 2024, a shooting took place inside the venue, according to a statement from the police at the time. One person was grazed in the head by a bullet and taken to a hospital in stable condition.
Maria Lopez, 36, who moved into a shelter a block from the venue on Tuesday, said she heard the shots ring out Wednesday night.
“It was bam, bam, bam, bam,” she said. “I thought it was fireworks. I was saying to myself, it’s too late in the evening for this, too late for it to be New Year’s celebrations.”
Carlton Power, 62, was born and raised in the neighborhood. He celebrated a birthday at Amazura in 1994. Standing outside the venue, Mr. Power said he was concerned about youth violence in New York.
“We live in a world of violence,” he said. “Look at what the kids are learning online. It feels like it’s becoming like a man-eat-man world, a girl-eat-girl environment.”
The attack on Wednesday capped off a violent New Year’s Day in the city. There were three homicides Wednesday morning, according to the police. One of the victims, identified by the police as Mario Fowler, 46, was shot in both legs in the Bronx before 5:30 a.m. The other two victims, both men, have not been identified. One was slashed in the neck in Harlem a little before 4:30 a.m., while the other was stabbed around 5 a.m. in the Bronx.
Dakota Santiago and Wesley Parnell contributed reporting.
