Three men were stabbed early Monday morning in Brooklyn not far from where annual J’Ouvert celebrations were getting started.
The NYPD said investigators were looking for one person said to be responsible for attacks on all three men shortly before 6 a.m. in Crown Heights. Police had two separate crime scenes along Utica Avenue at Carroll Street and President Street.
At least one of the victims, a man stabbed in the neck, was critically wounded and fighting for his life. The other two men were expected to survive. Police said the men were ages 23, 32 and 36.
A woman who witnessed the violence said people were running and screaming from the area.
“All of this is not called for,” she said. “You just have to have a good time and keep the violence away.”
There was already an increased police presence in the neighborhood as J’Ouvert festivities were scheduled to begin around 6 a.m. Police have not said whether the violence is connected in any way to the celebrations.
Officials have stepped up security this year, following violence at celebrations in years past, around the West Indian Day Parade. Police established check points with metal detectors and were not allowing bags along the parade route.
Organizers say the parade has become both a defiant assertion of pride and a rare bright spot in a traumatic year. NBC New York’s Gaby Acevedo reports.