A 19-year-old gunman with no criminal history sparked a gang-related mass shooting at a Brooklyn lounge when he opened fire at a rival before being slain himself in the ensuing gun battle, police said Monday.
Martin St. Louis died in the Sunday gunfight he started when he fired at Folk Nation gang member Jamel Childs, 35, according to police. Childs fired back and two other men immediately opened fire as well.
Childs also died in the exchange of gunfire along with 27-year-old Amadou Diallo, who police said Monday was a completely innocent bystander.
The total number of people shot during the gunfight has increased to 14, cops said Monday.
Police at first believed there were 12 people shot but the list has know grown by two, with one man showing up at Kings County Hospital Sunday night with an ankle wound and another man showing up at New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital early Monday with an unspecified bullet wound.
The start of the mass shooting was captured in grainy video footage recovered by cops from inside Taste of the City Lounge on Franklin Ave. in Crown Heights.
About 10 minutes before the 3:30 a.m. gun battle erupted, Childs and St. Louis were seen on video talking to each other, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Monday.
“Later, Mr. St. Louis approached Mr. Childs and opened fire,” Tisch said. “Mr. Childs returned fire and two other gunmen immediately joined.”
Those other two gunmen fled the scene and are being sought. Detectives do not yet know their names.
Childs had eight prior arrests, Tisch said. St. Louis had no record.
Most of the people shot were not involved in the gang beef but three off them are Folk Nation members, Tisch said Monday.
Forty-two shell casings were recovered by police inside and outside the lounge.
“We was just in there,” clubgoer Marie Desir, a 40-year-old mother of two who fled the shooting, said Sunday. “I heard a few gunshots and then … people on the floor, running, trying to save their life just like I did.”
“I ducked down and after that I found a way to get out,” she added. “I laid down on the floor first and when I found a way to get out, I just got out.”
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