Victims In Deadly Brooklyn Shooting ID'd, No Arrests Made
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Officials have released the identities of the four men who were killed at what police say appears to have been an illegal gambling den in Brooklyn.
At least three other people were injured in the shooting. Police said at least 15 people were inside the building at the time, CBS2's Marc Liverman reported Sunday.
First responders and flashing lights flooded the street early Saturday morning. Police responded to reports of shots fired. When officers got to the building on Utica Avenue near Pacific Street in Crown Heights, they said they found four men dead inside.
Eddie Baldwin said his brother, 36-year-old Terence Bishop, was one of those victims.
"We need to put the guns down, that's the main thing. This... what was the reason? The man is innocent," Baldwin said.
Three other men, all from Brooklyn, were also killed. Police have identified them as 47-year-old Dominick Wimbush, 37-year-old Chester Goode and 32-year-old John Thomas.
Baldwin said he had just recently reconnected with his brother and is now grieving his loss.
"His smile, his presence, his hugs," Baldwin said.
Wimbush was described by family and friends as a doting father who they said was only there to help with club security.
"Good dude like him to be gone so fast you know? I don't think he deserved that," said friend Eddie Williams, adding Wimbush likely died trying to stop violence. "He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He neverhad any problems with anybody, never."
Police said three other people were wounded in the shooting. They said it happened at what they're calling an illegal gambling club.
"The problem is that in this community, we don't put value on life. That's the problem," one neighbor said.
"I would like to get the closure of what really happened and if we got a little more police on the block that would make a little bit of difference," Crown Heights resident Sharon Davis told CBS2's Dave Carlin.
On Saturday, police led families, shaken and in tears, to identify their loved ones inside. Outside, a prominent sign hangs above the building, identifying the business as a social club, a place where officers said they've never had any complaints of illegal activity.
It's less than a block away from a police precinct.
"It saddens us to see the amount of people that was killed at one time. That is unprecedented in an area like this," Pastor Gilford Monrose said.
So far, police haven't made any arrests. On top of the seven shooting victims, they said an eighth person injured his leg while trying to escape the building during the chaos. Police recovered two weapons at the scene, a revolver and a 9 mm handgun, Carlin reported.