NEW YORK (AP) — An aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo was fighting for his life Tuesday, a day after being caught in the crossfire between two gangs in Brooklyn.
Carey Gabay, a first deputy general counsel at the Empire State Development Corp., was shot in the head during a pre-dawn party celebrating the West Indian Day parade.
Police called Gabay an unintended victim of an exchange of more than two dozen shots from up to three guns at 3:40 a.m. Monday near the parade route. Investigators were still searching for the shooters on Tuesday.
In a statement, Gabay’s family said he was in a coma and “surrounded by his loved ones” at a Brooklyn hospital.
“Our family is thankful for the outpouring of prayers that we’ve received in the aftermath of this senseless violence,” the family said. “Carey has always been an inspiration to all of us and he continues to inspire us with his fight for survival.”
Cuomo called the 43-year-old Harvard-educated lawyer “an outstanding public servant” who joined his administration in 2011.
“He’s not doing well,” Cuomo said Tuesday during a visit to Puerto Rico to discuss ways New York could help the U.S. territory’s economic crisis.
Police Commissioner William Bratton told reporters Tuesday that investigators were focusing on two gangs whose members are well-known to the New York Police Department.
“I’m very confident that we will solve that crime,” Bratton said.
The shooting was one of several outbursts of violence in the neighborhoods surrounding the parade, including the fatal stabbing of a 24-year-old man. Police arrested a suspect in a separate shooting that occurred shortly before Gabay was wounded.
Cuomo pushed through a 2013 gun control law in New York in the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school massacre. He supports stronger gun laws on the federal level and called Gabay’s shooting “the latest heartbreaking reminder that the crime of gun violence must stop. Enough young, innocent people have died, and it must stop now.”
Bloodshed before or after the West Indian Day celebration has become a sadly familiar part of the parade routine. Last year, a recent parolee opened fire into a crowd of revelers, killing one man and wounding several others. And in 2013, a 1-year-old boy sitting in his stroller was killed by a bullet meant for his father.
Asked about the future of the parade, Bratton responded: “The political leadership, the community leadership, the communities themselves want that celebration. They’ve made that quite clear. … So we will work to the best of our ability to deal with the elements in that community that engage in that violence.”
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Prayers for Mr. Gabay and his family.
Why does this particular parade incite violence?
Tough neighborhood, plus the sheer volume of people. You are bound to have an incident of violence with that many people.
St Patrick’'s Day Parade NYC - 150,000 Marchers, 2 million spectators. Fifth Ave, Manhattan.
West Indian Day parade - 1-3 million participants, approx 3 million spectators. Brooklyn.
Wow! I didn’t realize that it was that major a parade. Thanx.
Take Pride In Parenting; End Child Abuse Neglect; End Police Fear & Community Violence
“This tragic shooting - this one by another seemingly random bullet - is the latest heartbreaking reminder that the crime of gun violence must stop,” Cuomo added.
Dear Governor, what is truly heartbreaking is citizens like yourself who willfully ignore our expanding National Epidemic of Child Abuse & Neglect that for decades has deprived countless numbers of children from experiencing and enjoying a safe, fairly happy American kid childhood.
Tragedies like this occur when emotionally or physically abused and neglected developing young children mature into frustrated teens or adults lacking empathy and compassion, though filled with rage and resentment for being introduced to a life of pain and struggle.
How much longer will America ignore the expanding sub-culture of immature American teen girls and young women of African descent who subject their children to Child Abuse and Neglect by building families with too many mouths to feed?
Mouths attached to children who mature into depressed, angry, unpredictable teens and adults resenting their single-mothers for introducing them to a life of pain and struggle, yet want to blame everyone except their moms for depriving them of the opportunity to enjoy and experience a safe, fairly happy American kid childhood.
I grew up listening to Motown artists praising and adoring women in their songs.
For more than thirty years a substantial number of American rap performance artists have been characterizing the maternal half of our population as *itches and *hores.
Why?
Speaking At The Eulogy For The Honorable Reverend Clementa Pinckney, President Barack Obama said:
“Perhaps it causes us to examine what we’re doing to cause some of our children to hate.” (Applause.)
Is this an important question or is it not worth looking into?
Are we going to address this tough question posed by our president?
Are we going to take real, tangible action - sincerely and honestly working toward ending America’s growing National Epidemic of Child Abuse and Neglect that for generations has deprived countless children from experiencing and enjoying a safe, fairly happy American Kid childhood?
In May of 2015 the NYTimes reported an increase in suicide among young Americans of African descent.
Why?
#TakePrideInParenting
#EndChildAbuseNeglect
#ProtectKidsFromIrresponsibleCaregivers