NEW YORK _ NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill vowed Sunday to find and bring to justice the gunmen in the deadly mass shooting at a Brooklyn block party.
O'Neill said the "person or persons" who shot a dozen people at the "Old Timers' Day" block party fled the Brownsville park immediately after the shots were fired around 11 p.m. Saturday, leaving one dead on the scene and 11 injured.
"It was not a good night in Brownsville," O'Neill said in an interview on NY1 Sunday. "This is a great event, been going on a long time. I'm sure we're going to figure out who did this and bring them to justice."
The shooting occurred on day two of the popular block party and its sponsors included several local politicians, including City Council Member Inez Barron, Assemblyman Charles Barron and Assemblywoman Latrice Walker.
Over 100 cops were assigned to the block party that had between 2,000 and 3,000 revelers, according to O'Neill. Still, he said, "People felt emboldened enough to shoot other people."
Marcus Burchell, 61, a Brooklyn community director, said he was with cops when he heard at least 14 shots.
"I saw at least four or five people hit. There was a guy inside the fence. He was face down. He had on a white shirt but they ripped it off," he said. "He had several bullet wounds to the torso. He had a wound in the back of the head."
"They flipped him over and I realized the bullet went through his head," Burchell added. "One eye was bulging out. They said there was a pulse but he wasn't going to make it."
Police found a firearm, which they taped off in the playground scene. Police could not confirm if that was the weapon used in the fatal shooting.
Three hours later in an unrelated incident, a man was shot to death in Canarsie, just over two miles from the Brownsville Playground.
The 24-year-old man was shot once in the head about 2 a.m. Sunday on Avenue K near E. 85th St. He was rushed to Kings County Hospital bur could not be saved, police said. His name was not immediately released.
