J'Ouvert Parade: Thousands turn out for West Indian festival despite shooting deaths

In the Creole language J'Ouvert means 'daybreak'

Thousands turned out to celebrate, despite the isolated incidents of violence (Reuters)

Two people were shot dead at a pre-dawn Caribbean heritage celebration in New York despite ramped-up efforts by police and community activists to prevent the violence that has plagued the annual event.

Reports said that gunfire erupted in the early hours of Monday at three separate incidents during J'Ouvert, a street party tied to the Caribbean Carnival that draws tens of thousands of revelers in the borough of Brooklyn over the Labor Day Weekend. Two other people were wounded, police said. At the same event last year, two people were killed, including a top aide to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, the Associated Press reported.

Despite the shootings, large numbers of people turned out to support the event, determined to show that those involved in the violence were a small minority.

“Last night, we had unfortunate tragedy once again affect this event,” New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said at a news conference.

Two men, aged 18 and 22, were killed in shootings at about 3.45am and 4.15am. A 72-year-old woman was injured in the first shooting and a 20-year-old man was shot in the leg in a third shooting at about 6.45am.

Police said that five people were shot, two of them fatally (AP)

Only one of the victims, who were not publicly identified, was believed to have been targeted, police said. No arrests have been made.

J’Ouvert takes its name from a word in the French Creole languages of the Caribbean that means “daybreak”. The party is followed by the West Indian Day Parade, which attracts some one million people.

Last year, Carey Gabay, 43, a Harvard-educated lawyer who was formerly an aide to the state’s governor, was struck and killed by a stray bullet during pre-parade festivities and another person was fatally stabbed.

In the past decade, more than a dozen people have been either killed or wounded in shootings and stabbings at parade-associated events.

Later on Monday, people poured onto the streets despite the shootings - determined to that the event should not be completely marred by the killings.

The New York Police Department assigned 34,000 officers to the event this year, compared with 1,700 last year. In addition, 45 surveillance cameras were installed along the parade route, 250 light towers were erected to illuminate streets and community activists and clergy reached out to gangs leading up to the event. Police conducted a gun buy-back the Friday before the festivities.

Mayor Bill De Blasio, who declined on Monday to say whether he would consider cancelling the parade in future years, said the city would need to continue strengthening its security of the event.

“I think a lot of impressive work was done,” Mr De Blasio said, according to the AP. “We have more work to do.”