NYPD: 4 Shot In Front Of Brooklyn Deli
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Four people were shot Thursday in front of a deli in Flatbush, Brooklyn, according to police.
As CBS2's Dave Carlin reported, the brazen gunfire happened on a busy sidewalk.
The shooting took place outside Express Deli Grocery on Glenwood Road at around 10:30 a.m., police said
"Shots ... five or four shots ... rapid ... pop, pop, pop, pop," a man named Simon said.
Simon described the chaos after police said the unidentified gunman rounded the corner on to Glenwood from Nostrand Avenue, fired at the men, and fled into the subway.
"Scrambling, scrambling, running," Simon said.
The clerk behind the counter at the deli said he took cover on the floor below the cash register.
"I heard the shots and lay down. That's it," Basam Alokan said.
Alokan said said the four victims, who police said are in their early to mid 30s, looked familiar to him, but he doesn't know them by name.
"Always hang out in the street," he said. "Just hang out in the street all the time."
Three of the four men were shot in the legs, and the fourth shot was wounded on the hand. All are expected to recover, police said.
Police responded even before the first 911 call, after getting an alert from ShotSpotter, the technology the NYPD uses to detect gunfire.
Leaders of a preschool right across the street knew to put the children in lockdown. Carlin spoke to an administrator, who told him everyone is fine after the scary situation.
Some in the community said they are fed up with what they call rampant and rising crime, shootings at all times of the day and night.
"So this is very scary. When something like this happens a whole community is traumatized, not just a person shot, not just the family, not just the shooter. It's everyone that's part of it because you think about the last shooting or you think about who you know that got shot or you think about I just passed there five minutes ago, and now they're shooting. It could've been me," said Monique Chandler-Waterman, founder of youth outreach nonprofit East Flatbush Village, Inc.
Police said they believe the gunmen knew his victims, but have not yet released any surveillance video, a motive, or a suspect description.