Police: 4 die at illegal gambling site
NEW YORK >> Gunfire broke out inside an illegal gambling club in Brooklyn early Saturday, police said, leaving four people dead, three wounded and investigators trying to piece together what prompted the bloodshed.
The shooting inside the small, nondescript club started just before 7 a.m. as around 15 people were gambling with dice and cards, police said.
At a news conference hours later, Chief of Detec- tives Dermot Shea said investigators were trying to determine if a gambling dispute, a robbery or something else was to blame for the violence.
“A bit of a chaotic scene,” Shea said.
Two handguns were recovered. Multiple shots were fired, and police didn’t immediately say how many people might have been shooting.
The victims, who have not been identified, ranged in age from 32 to 49, Shea said. Two may have lived out of state, and the rest were from neighborhoods throughout Brooklyn.
All of the people shot were men, save for one wounded woman. The injured were expected to survive. One additional person was hurt fleeing.
No one was immediately charged in the shooting, but police were questioning survivors and reviewing security camera footage.
“We have some individuals back at the 77th Precinct, and we’re trying to piece together exactly what transpired in that location,” Shea said.
The unlicensed club, adorned with a sign identifying it as the “Triple A Aces Private & Social Event Space,” was operating on the first floor of an older wood-frame townhouse on a block with some empty storefronts and boardedup buildings.
Isaac Mickens, a community organizer, described the place as a “hole-in-thewall gambling den” in an interview with The New York Times.