Four persons shot dead at illegal gambling club in New York City

NEW YORK (AP) — Four people were killed and three others wounded in a shooting incident at an illegal gambling club in New York City early Saturday, police officials have confirmed.

The six men and one woman were reportedly shot just before 7a.m. inside a building in the Crown Heights neighbourhood of Brooklyn.

Chief of Detectives for the New York Police Department (NYPD) Dermot Shea said four men were dead at the scene and the others were taken to hospitals with injuries that were not life-threatening.

The victims, who have not been identified, ranged in age from 32 to 49 years old, Shea disclosed during a press briefing near the shooting scene.

Two may have lived out of state and the rest were from neighbourhoods throughout Brooklyn, Shea added.

No arrests have been made and police do not know the motive for the shootings, The NYPD official said.

He said two guns were found at the scene and more could potentially be found.

Mayor of New York City Bill de Blasio, in a message posted on Twitter, said the city “awoke to senseless gun violence.”

“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it until I can’t anymore: we have an epidemic of gun violence that spares no community — and it won’t stop until we get guns off our streets once and for all.”

The shooting was the second mass killing in New York in a week in a city that has seen a marked drop in homicides in recent years.

Four homeless men were beaten to death by another homeless man in the Chinatown section of Lower Manhattan last Saturday.

A sign on the building where the bloodshed occurred says Triple A Aces.

Shea said there was “evidence of gambling” inside, including cards and dice.

The gambling operation was unlicensed, but police had not previously received any complaints about the location, Chief of Patrol Rodney Harrison said.

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