[
9th and A at 6:30 a.m. via Vinny & O]
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Preliminary recap:
• Two men are dead after an early morning shootout on Avenue A at Seventh Street.
• Police say an argument that started inside the Hayaty Hookah Bar, 103 Avenue A, spilled out into the street.
• The two men, each armed, shot at each other. One of the men, identified as Richard Reid, 41, died. Both men were reportedly gang members.
• Two uniformed officers from the 9th Precinct, on patrol nearby, responded to the scene. Police say the officers shot the second man after he refused to get on the ground. The man, identified as Earl Facey (also ID'd as Lacey), 37, reportedly was on parole for a prior shooting for which he had served eight years in prison.
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Original post with updates...
There's a massive police response on Avenue A and Seventh Street [as of 5 a.m.] following an early-morning shooting involving two men on the southwest corner.
According to
ABC 7, the gunfire was a result of a fight that started inside the Hayaty Hookah Bar, 103 Avenue A between Sixth Street and Seventh Street.
Per ABC:
Both men were taken to Bellevue Hospital with injuries described as life-threatening.
No officers were injured in the gunfire, although two were being taken to the hospital to be treated for ringing in the ears.
A weapon has been recovered at the scene.
Avenue A is currently closed to through traffic between Fifth Street and 10th Street (as of 5 a.m.)...
We'll continue to update this story as more information becomes available.
Updated 7:19 a.m.
From the scene... both men, including one shot by police, are dead...
Updated 7:22 a.m.
According to
NBC 4, two uniformed officers from the 9th Precinct who were patrolling Tompkins Square Park heard the gunshots around 3:30 a.m. and responded to the scene at the corner of Seventh and A.
That's where they found a man shooting at another man.
The officers engaged them and told the armed man to get on the ground. "It was then the officers fired approximately three times at the male, striking him," NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan told reporters.
Updated 7:26 a.m.
The press conference...
Police Chief Terence Monahan
said that the man police shot was on parole for a prior shooting for which he had served eight years in prison.
Updated 8:45 a.m.
Police released photos of the two weapons the men had in their possession.
Updated 10 a.m.
Steven shared these photos... taken at 8:50 a.m. and showing the ongoing investigation...
There are bullet casings on Avenue A...
Several businesses along Avenue A aren't able to open, including Starbucks at St. Mark's Place, which won't be open at all today, per a sign on the door...
Updated 1:30 p.m.
The
Daily News has more on the two victims, Richard Reid and Earl Facey, gang members who did not know each other.
Sources said Reid, who lived in Brownsville, was a Crip with 14 arrests on his record. He had connections to two previous shooting, sources said. He was a person of interest in a March 31, 2019, non-fatal shooting in Bedford-Stuyvesant and was a witness in another shooting, also not fatal, on Jan. 3, 2017, on the Lower East Side.
Facey, a member of the Insane Gangsta Crips who lived in East Harlem, had an even worse record, sources said.
He had been arrested 21 times and served almost seven years in state prison for gun possession before he was paroled in August 2017. He was also considered a suspect in a Sept. 28, 2008 shooting in East Flatbush and a April 3, 2008, murder in Flatbush, sources said. Facey was also shot once before, in Crown Heights on May 1, 2004.
Updated 4 p.m.
Per the
Post: Reid and Facey got into a fight inside the bar after the women they were with bumped into each other.
During the fracas, a bottle or glass of water was thrown, prompting a bouncer to boot all those involved out onto the street where Facey and Reid ultimately opened fire on each other, sources said.
