One person was killed and four others wounded, including a staffer for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, early Monday morning after gunshots went off and individuals were stabbed at the start of the annual J’Ouvert Festival in Brooklyn, reports ABC 7 News.
According to ABC 7, the NYPD says around 2 a.m., a 24-year-old man was fatally stabbed in the torso, while a 21-year-old man was shot in the buttocks. The 21-year-old is in stable condition.
Additionally, there were three other shootings in the same area around the same time. Carey Gabay, Cuomo’s first deputy counsel, was shot in the head and is reported to be in critical condition.
The New York Daily News reports Gabay, 43, is on life support at Kings County Hospital where Doctors are preparing to harvest his organs.
“He was caught in gunfire that he had nothing to do with. And there is nothing we can do, nothing the doctors can do, but pray,” Cuomo told the Daily News after visiting Gabay’s bedside. “It is a personal, painful reminder of gun violence. And it has to stop. It just has to stop.”
New York City, along with the entire Empire State, has the strictest gun control laws in the nation. Cuomo signed the state’s newest gun control measures in 2013 known as the Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act (SAFE Act).
However, New York City has seen a spike in shootings over the last year and murders are up 8.3 percent citywide.