At least four people died and another five were wounded in a shooting at an unlicensed private social club in New York early Saturday, police said.
No one has been arrested over the early morning shooting in Brooklyn, and the motive and exact circumstances are not known, a New York police official said.
The shooting on the borough’s major artery Utica Avenue took place at the Triple A Aces Private & Social Rental Place, what NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea called “an illegal gambling location.”
Shea told journalists at a briefing there was evidence of gambling, specifically cards and dice, and that preliminary investigations indicated that a minimum of 15 shots were fired.
Shea said it was too early to tell whether the dispute was gambling or perhaps robbery-related.
Two firearms were recovered and the police official said he “would not be shocked if we recovered more.”
Homicide detectives were on the scene, and Shea said nothing indicated that the crime was gang-related.
The social club where the shooting took place is in the diverse Crown Heights neighbourhood, and the victims ranged in age from 32 to 49.
The shooting comes one month after the city saw its lowest number of shootings of any September since the NYPD started its CompStat crime tracking programme in 1994.
In a country plagued by gun violence, New York state has some of the strictest rules concerning purchasing, possessing and carrying firearms, particularly in the city and its suburbs.
The state legislature passed the Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement (SAFE) Act in 2013, which among other provisions bans most assault weapons and large capacity ammunition magazines.
The act also requires ammunition dealers to conduct background checks.
The local affiliate of ABC News described the place where the shooting took place as an after-hours club.
Four men were pronounced dead at the scene, while two other men and a woman suffered non life threatening injuries, the police official said.
Earlier reports had said as many as five people were wounded.
