Paradegoers packed a two-mile stretch of Brooklyn’s Eastern Parkway on Monday for New York City’s annual West Indian Day Parade. Considered one of the largest Caribbean gatherings in the U.S., the parade was held after the J’Ouvert celebration began the daylong festivities at 6am in Crown Heights with a pre-parade party.
This year, revelers were met with an increased police presence and additional security measures, such as metal detectors and a delayed start time, to help avoid the violence that erupted at last year’s event, ABC 7 reported. Last year, two people were killed while attending the parade.
Before this year’s J’Ouvert celebration began, a shooting in Crown Heights around 5 a.m. wounded two people about a block from the parade route, the New York Post reported. Both individuals were taken to area hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries.
At around 5:15 p.m. on Monday, a man was shot near the beginning of the parade route on Eastern Parkway, NBC 4 reported. Officers were searching for the gunman on Monday evening, and the victim was taken, in serious condition, to Kings County Hospital where he was expected to survive.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and NYPC Commissioner James O’Neill were all on hand on Monday for the parade and celebration of Caribbean culture, DNAinfo reported.
