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NEW YORK —Five people were shot Monday at New York City's West Indian American Day Parade, police said. It was the latest incident of violence to mar one of the world's largest annual celebrations of Caribbean culture.
A gunman targeting a specific group of people opened fire along the parade route in Brooklyn around 2:35 p.m., NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said. The parade had kicked off hours earlier, with thousands of revelers dancing and marching down Eastern Parkway, a main thoroughfare through the borough. It was expected to continue into the night.
Two people were critically wounded, Chell said. The three other victims were expected to survive their injuries, he said. The gunman fled.
"This was not random," Chell said. "This was an intentional act by one person towards a group of people. We do not by no means have any active shooter or anything of that nature running around Eastern Parkway as we speak. The parade is going on and will go on until later on tonight."
An Associated Press videographer who was nearby when the shots rang out saw at least two people being treated for what appeared to be wounds to the face and arm.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was marching in the parade at the time and completed the route. A message was left with Schumer's office.
Police cordoned off an area adjacent to the parade route, where they placed crime scene markers. The parade continued flowing past as officers were seen bagging items.
Chell asked that bystanders provide police with any video footage they may have recorded of the shooting.
"We need that video," Chell said. "We are going to solve this, but it's going to take a lot of work."
The parade, an annual Labor Day event in its 57th year, turns Eastern Parkway into a kaleidoscope of feather-covered costumes and colorful flags as participants make their way down the thoroughfare alongside floats stacked high with speakers playing soca and reggae music.
The parade routinely attracts huge crowds, who line the almost 2-mile (3.2-kilometer) route that runs from Crown Heights to the Brooklyn Museum. It's also a popular destination for local politicians, many of whom are of West Indian heritage or represent members of the city's large Caribbean community.
Though a joyous occasion, the parade and related celebrations have been plagued by violence over the years.
In 2016, two people were killed and several others were wounded near the parade route. The year before, Carey Gabay, an aide to then-Governor Andrew Cuomo, was shot in the head during pre-parade festivities. He died nine days later.
The West Indian American Day Parade has its roots in more traditionally timed, pre-Lent Carnival celebrations started by a Trinidadian immigrant in Manhattan around a century ago, according to the organizers. The festivities were moved to the warmer time of year in the 1940s.
Brooklyn, where hundreds of thousands of Caribbean immigrants and their descendants have settled, began hosting the parade in the 1960s.
The Labor Day parade is now the culmination of days of carnival events in the city, which include a steel pan band competition and J'Ouvert, a separate street party commemorating freedom from slavery.