Early Thursday morning, two men, identified as Earl Facey and Richard Reid, reportedly got into an argument inside the Hayaty Hookah Bar at 103 Avenue A between Sixth Street and Seventh Street.
The fight escalated outside the club, when the two men — each reportedly carrying a .22 caliber handgun — exchanged gunfire. Surveillance footage obtained by NBC 4 shows the two men "shooting at each other as they dance around a parked car," per the report, outside Hayaty.
The chase ended in front of 113 Avenue A, the address of Ray's Candy Store, where Facey was said by police to fatally shoot Reid in the torso. Two uniformed officers who were on patrol nearby shot Facey on the northwest corner of Avenue A and Seventh Street as he walked away, refusing multiple commands to drop his weapon and lie on the ground, according to police accounts and media reports. One officer fired his weapon twice, the other one time. Facey later died at Bellevue.
Francisco Valera, a photographer and photojournalist/videographer, lives in a front-facing apartment on Avenue A at Seventh Street.
"It was 3:38 a.m. I was awake, writing in my computer in my living room. It was pretty quiet. Suddenly I heard the shouts of what appeared to be men, nothing unusual for this crazy corner. Then I heard the shots — like three or four times," he said in an email. "I knew right away they were from guns. My dog ran toward
the window and I panicked, thinking the bullets could hit him. I turned the lights off and looked out the window to see a men laying in the middle of Avenue A."
He shared this two-minute video that shows the moments after both men were shot. (The first 15 seconds of the video were filmed sideways.) In the clip below, two officers have their guns drawn, crouching behind a trashcan, looking toward Facey, in the green jacket lying in the intersection of Seventh Street at Avenue A.
An unidentified voice can be heard yelling "two shooters down" and telling officers to "holster up." Officers can also be heard commanding passersby to "back off" multiple times.
In the street outside 113 Avenue A, officers are performing CPR on Reid, on his back in the white jacket. An unidentified man is seen pleading with the police. "Officer, please put him in a car. Put him in the car — you don't have a fucking second!" The sounds of an ambulance can be heard in the distance. The man turns to the north on Avenue A toward the approaching ambulance. He pleads with the officers again to take Reid to a hospital in an NYPD vehicle: "There's traffic because of this! What the fuck are you all doing!"
The video contains disturbing images — viewer discretion is advised.
Police said both men were reputed gang members and have been linked to prior shootings.
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