Police: 1 Dead, 5 Hurt In Bloody Melee Outside Bronx Nightclub
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- One man was killed and several others were injured in a brawl outside a Bronx nightclub Sunday morning.
The melee started around 3:50 a.m. outside the Xtreme Lounge at East Fordham Road and Valentine Avenue, just blocks from the Fordham University campus, police said.
"I wake up and look out the window and I see girls running everywhere, running -- bang, bang, bang, bang, and I said 'oh my gosh somebody got shot,'" Luis Figueroa, who lives in the neighborhood, told CBS 2's Steve Langford.
Police said people were leaving the lounge when a group outside got into an altercation, CBS 2 reported.
Three men were shot, two were slashed and one was struck in the head with a baseball bat, authorities said.
Dennis Rodriguez, 24, of the Bronx, was shot in the chest and pronounced dead at St. Barnabas Hospital, police said. A 21-year-old victim who was shot in the head was listed in critical condition. The other shooting victim was wounded in the leg and was in stable condition.
The other injuries are also considered non-life-threatening. All the victims were men in their mid to early 20s.
Still visible at the crime scene Sunday morning were a baseball bat, a pool of blood, a car with a broken windshield and droplets of blood on the hood, and a blood-soaked shirt.
"I just feel like they took him away too soon from us," Rodriguez's sister, Danely Merejo, told Young.
Merejo said her brother was never in trouble.
"Anybody could tell you he's very loving. His family, very respectful. You don't see that in young guys anymore," she said.
People walking by the scene Sunday morning told 1010 WINS' Kevin Rincon the violence is nothing new in the area.
"There's always fights in that neighborhood right there on that block. So things like that, no surprise," one man said. "It's sad, the way things are, especially in the Bronx. Things have changed a lot, but these things do happen. It still goes on."
"I heard the shots, but I rolled over and went to sleep," said one woman who lives in the neighborhood. "I'm very concerned, but there's nothing I can do. I just go about my business."
Jackson told WCBS 880's Jim Smith the nightclub has a bad reputation.
"That place is known to be a little violent at times," he said.
The investigation into the attack is ongoing. So far, no arrests have been made.
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