Cuomo lawyer shot in deadly mayhem before West Indian Day Parade
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NYPD officers draw their guns on a crowd after shots were fired on Bedford and Empire Blvd in front of a 7-11 on Sept. 7. Photo: Stephen Yang
A Harvard-educated lawyer in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration was shot in the head by a stray bullet in Brooklyn early Monday during a spate of violence before the West Indian Day Parade, sources said.
First Deputy Counsel Carey Gabay, 43, who was appointed to the post in January, was with his brother and pals as they walked past an argument at Bedford Avenue and Sullivan Place in Crown Heights at about 3:40 a.m., police sources said.
When bullets started flying, Gabay ducked down between two cars to try to protect himself but was struck in the head, sources said.
Gabay — whose wife is pregnant with their first child — was rushed to Kings County Hospital, where he remains in critical condition, authorities said.
“It was just totally random. Some guy walked up and was spraying bullets everywhere.”
“I can’t believe it,” said Gabay’s brother, Aaron McNaughton, who was with his sibling at the time and wept as he recalled the shooting.
“He was a good guy, he just didn’t deserve this,” McNaughton, 32, said.
Cuomo expressed his shock after the “random bullet” left Gabay fighting for his life.
“Last night, it looks like we lost the life of a beautiful, beautiful individual, a young man who worked for me, 43 years old, was a Harvard-educated lawyer and went to work for the state because he wanted to give back and make a difference,” Cuomo said, apparently thinking Gabay had died.
“This is a young man who could’ve gone to any Wall Street firm and make multiples of what he was making for the state,” he added.
He later described Gabay as in “critical condition.”
A motive behind the gunfire wasn’t immediately clear, and police have not yet released any information on a possible suspect.
Elliot Drake, 22, who lives near Bedford Avenue, described a chaotic scene after gunfire broke out.
“When the shooting started, there were hundreds of people here on the street and they just stampeded down Bedford toward Empire,” he told The Post. “The shooting went from the street into the Ebbets Field Houses. Hundreds of people were trampling each other to get away.”
A 20-year-old man also was grazed in the hand on Empire Street and Bedford Avenue, said officials.
Cops arrested a man from the scene of that shooting and recovered a pistol, sources said. Charges were still pending.
A 39-year-old man also was gunned down at about 4:20 a.m. on Martense Street and Nostrand Avenue, authorities said.
That man was rushed to Kings County Hospital, where he is expected to survive, cops said. He told cops he “heard shots and felt pain,” sources said.
The mayhem unfolded at about 2 a.m. when a man was fatally stabbed in the torso after a large fight on Empire Boulevard and Bedford Avenue, according to police.
The name of the deceased is pending proper family notification, cops said.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Another man involved in the melee was shot in the buttocks and listed in stable condition at New York Methodist Hospital, authorities said.
Cops found spent shell casings at eight locations.
The Labor Day violence erupted at the start of the annual J’Ouvert Festival, an annual event that kicks off at 4 a.m. at Grand Army Plaza and wends its way down Flatbush Avenue to Empire Boulevard, Nostrand Avenue and Linden Boulevard.
Cuomo said “safety and justice is a two-way street.”
“That, that my friends, as we celebrate today, we have to commit ourselves to justice in partnership with the police, and in partnership with one another, that the crime, the violence on the street stop because enough young people have died, enough young innocent people and it has to stop and it has to stop now,” he said.
Additional reporting by Natasha Velez
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