Page 3 - ATA 8 SEPT 2015
P. 3
U.S. NEWS A5
Tuesday 8 September 2015
Violence mars New York’s festive West Indian Day Parade
JONATHAN LEMIRE into a crowd of revelers, kill- Costumed participants dance as they make their way along Eastern Parkway in the Brooklyn
Associated Press ing one man and wounding borough of New York during the West Indian Day Parade, Monday Sept. 7, 2015.
NEW YORK (AP) — The West several others. And in 2013,
Indian Day Parade, a rol- a 1-year-old boy sitting in (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg)
licking, colorful celebration his stroller was killed by a
of Caribbean culture, mu- bullet meant for his father.
sic, style and food, rolled Mayor Bill de Blasio and Po-
through New York City’s lice Commissioner William
streets Monday but, once Bratton dismissed talk of
again, was marred by pre- scuttling the preparade fes-
dawn violence that left one tivities — which center on
man dead and an aide to a surreal midnight march
Gov. Andrew Cuomo in known as J’Ouvert — and
critical condition. said the New York Police
Cuomo identified his Department was working
wounded staffer as Carey with local leaders to make
Gabay, a first deputy gen- the event safer. There was
eral counsel at the Empire a heavy police presence
State Development Cor- along the route, and sev-
poration. Gabay was walk- eral NYPD helicopters hov-
ing with his brother near ered overhead.
the Brooklyn parade route The parade went on as
at 3:40 a.m. when he was scheduled and drew hun-
caught in the crossfire be- dreds of thousands of peo-
tween two gangs, accord- ple to the stretch along
ing to police officials. Eastern Parkway. Throbbing
A bullet struck Gabay, 43, basslines pulsated along
in the head. Cuomo said the route, propelling out-
Gabay, a Harvard-educat- landishly clad revelers to
ed lawyer who had worked dance and those along the
as an assistant counsel to sidelines to bob their heads
the governor, and his wife as they ate indigenous
are expecting their first foods.
child. Politicians dotted the route,
“I’m the governor of the with de Blasio and his wife,
state of New York, and Chirlane McCray, who is of
there’s not a thing I can Caribbean descent, draw-
do,” Cuomo told reporters ing cheers as they waved
after he visited his staffer’s flags and periodically
family at Kings County Hos- dashed to the sidelines
pital. “There’s not a thing I to shake hands and pose
can say, and there’s noth- for selfies. But the parade
ing I can do. And some- was also the latest venue
times it just hurts.” for New York’s most high-
No arrests have made profile political feud. The
been, police said. The march and an official pre-
shooting was one of several parade breakfast were the
outbursts of violence in the first public events since July
neighborhoods surrounding in which Cuomo and de
the parade, which includ- Blasio, who are locked in
ed the stabbing death of a a simmering dispute, were
24-year-old man at 2 a.m. both supposed to attend.
near Grand Army Plaza. But their paths never
Bloodshed before or after crossed. Cuomo left the
the West Indian Day cel- breakfast about 10 min-
ebration has become a utes before de Blasio ar-
sadly familiar part of the rived, and the two men,
parade routine. Last year, a both Democrats, marched
recent parolee opened fire separately.q
