Police: Parking Dispute Leads To Stabbing, Deadly Hit-And-Run Rampage Outside Queens Bar
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Violence erupted outside a hookah bar in Queens after police say a man angry about a parking dispute stabbed two people and then drove into a group of people on sidewalk, leaving a man dead and several other people injured, one critically.
Investigators say it started with the driver of a white Hyundai sedan getting out of his car and stabbing two people in the chest on Liberty Avenue in front of the XS Hookah Lounge near 128th Street.
Police say the driver then got back into his car, drove off, jumped a curb and hit a group of pedestrians. One man was killed, and five others injured, one of them critically.
As CBS2's Dave Carlin reported, the man who was killed was identified as Richardo Chattergoon, 23.
The remaining victims were rushed to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center where one is listed in critical condition. All were being treated for broken bones and head trauma, CBS2's Ali Bauman reported.
A 24-hour deli on the corner captured video of the incident.
"I saw a couple of kids, just fighting," neighbor Milagros Urbina said. "Suddenly I just see the white car driving through the sidewalk. They were all screaming, it was crazy. There was screaming before the car started driving, by the sidewalk."
Diane Hardyel witnessed the bloody aftermath from her window
"It was a lot of people," Hardyel said. "I was just scared, because it could've happened to anyone."
Hardyel took a photo from her window as detectives approached the bloody scene, but the white sedan was long gone by then. Witnesses said friends of the victim tried catching up to the suspect, but he got away.
The NYPD said it all started with a quarrel that was under way before Chattergoon was ever involved.
"It appears that this incident is the result of a parking dispute," said NYPD Assistant Chief David Barrere.
Police said a sport-utility vehicle was parked in front of the hookah lounge with to male occupants, and they apparently got into a quarrel with the driver of the white sedan who started to park in the space behind theirs.
Police said the men quarreled and at that point, the sedan driver stabbed the two men from the SUV.
Then bystanders got involved, loudly confronting the suspect.
That was when police said the driver got back in the white car, clipping and mowing people down -- including one of the men he had stabbed.
The victim who was both stabbed and struck with the vehicle remained in critical condition at the hospital late Sunday.
The driver got away, and then police say he took himself to the very same hospital, which is where police arrested him. He had a cut hand, 1010 WINS' Roger Stern reported.
"The driver of the vehicle we believe we have in custody," Barrere said.
There was also property damage involved in the incident.
"My car is right there and it's hit," said neighbor Matthew Powers.
Powers said he saw the victims on the sidewalk -- all men in their 20s and one young woman.
Chattergoon was declared dead on the sidewalk. Friends said he was a native of Guyana who lived with his family in Far Rockaway.
Other victims suffered injuries that include head trauma and broken legs.
"Over a parking space? It just doesn't make any sense to me," Powers said. "I don't understand, and people have no people have no value for life."
"It's really sad -- people don't know how to behave and control themselves," another man said.
Late Sunday, police towed the white sedan – with a shattered windshield – to the local precinct station.
The investigation is ongoing. No charges had been filed early Sunday evening.
(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)