A 17-year-old boy was shot and killed and a 35-year-old man was wounded when gunfire erupted in the East New York section of Brooklyn, police said, in the latest burst of deadly violence to strike the neighborhood. Officers described a chaotic scene in which two masked men opened fire on one another, spraying rounds near a busy stretch of New Lots Avenue and leaving one teenager dead and another person hurt.
According to investigators, the shooting broke out around 8:20 the previous night, just outside a local restaurant on New Lots Avenue. What began as an exchange of gunfire between the two armed men quickly turned lethal, with the teenager struck in the head. He was the only person killed, but the violence unfolded in a spot where people were coming and going during the evening.
The 17-year-old was pronounced dead a short time later, according to authorities. Police have not publicly identified the victim, describing him only as a 17-year-old boy, and said his family had yet to be formally notified in the immediate aftermath. His death adds to a toll of young lives lost to gun violence across the city this year.
A 35-year-old man was also caught in the gunfire and was grazed in the right arm. His injury was not described as life-threatening, and he was expected to survive. Investigators have not said whether the wounded man was one of the intended targets or, like the teenager, a bystander swept into the confrontation between the two shooters.
Police said the gunfire appeared to stem from a verbal dispute between two men that escalated within moments into a deadly shootout. Detectives have not disclosed what the argument was about, and the motive behind the confrontation remained unclear as the investigation continued through the night and into the early morning hours.
Both gunmen fled the scene and remained at large, and a search was underway to identify and locate the two masked shooters. Officers cautioned that key details, including how many rounds were fired and whether the men knew one another, were still being pieced together as witnesses were interviewed and surveillance footage from the area was reviewed.
Crime scene investigators were seen going in and out of the restaurant near where the shooting happened, collecting evidence and combing the sidewalk for clues that could help identify those responsible. The block remained an active crime scene into the morning, with police maintaining a presence as detectives worked to reconstruct the sequence of events that left a teenager dead.