BROOKLYN — Police were pelted with bottles after what a city councilman described as a "peaceful vigil" turned violent in East Flatbush Monday evening.
The violence started about 8:30 p.m. when "a large, disorderly group [began] throwing bottles at police" at Church Avenue and East 48th Street, an NYPD source said.
The crowd also surged into the Rite Aid on Church Avenue near Albany Street and trashed it about 9:15 p.m., pulling items off the shelves and attacking the store manager, clerks and security guard, the FDNY said. The group stole some items from the store and cash from the register, sources said.
One man who had been assaulted and was bleeding from the head was rushed to Kings County Hospital in unknown condition, the FDNY said.
Some surrounding shop windows were smashed, sources said, as were the windows of a B35 bus, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said, adding that no one connected with the bus was hurt.
City Councilman Jumaane Williams raced to the scene to try to quell the violence, which his spokesman said was related to theNYPD's fatal shooting of 16-year-old Kimani Gray, who was allegedly armed. The shooting occurred Saturday night, just a few blocks away from where the violence began Monday evening.
"I'm in the middle of the riot action at Church and Snyder in my district," Williamstweeted. "Right now, things are tense. Young people have expressed anger."
Williams estimated the crowd at 60 to 100 people and said he was "trying to defuse the tension."
"Tonight was a peaceful vigil [for Gray] that devolved into a riot," Williams added. "The youth in this community have no outlets for their anger, no community center."
One person was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, an NYPD spokeswoman said. No police officers were injured, the spokeswoman added.
The violence had ended by 10:15 p.m., officials said.
No comments:
Post a Comment