Carey Gabay, 43, was shot as he walked with his family at the intersection of Bedford Avenue and Sullivan Place, near Prospect Park, just before 4 a.m. on Monday.
The family was heading for the annual street celebration of J’ouvert, or West Indian American Day, which is accompanied by a colorful parade featuring colorful costumes and dancers.
Monday’s pre-festival preparations also were marred by other violence, including a fatal stabbing at another corner in Prospect Park and a non-fatal shooting, and police said the gunfire was probably gang-related, according to the New York Times newspaper.
No one has been arrested in any of Monday’s violence, the newspaper said.
“There was some indication that there were words being exchanged right before the gunfire started and the next thing you know, gunfire broke out on one side of Bedford and the other side of Bedford,” said Stephen Davis, chief spokesman for the New York Police Department.
“The fact that no one else was hit is nothing short of miraculous,” he said, adding that more than 30 shots were fired.
Gabay was taken to KIngs County Medical Center in Brooklyn, where he underwent surgery and was listed in critical condition Monday night, the newspaper said.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo visited Gabay in the hospital and said the Harvard-educated attorney, who grew up in low-income housing in The Bronx, was “not doing well.”
Cuomo said the country had to take action to stop gun violence.
“It is so painful, so unnecessary, so sad,” he said.
“It’s the same story almost weekly, tragedy after tragedy after tragedy,” the governor said.
Davis said the shooting was still under investigation, but it appeared that nearly 30 shots were fired by as many as three guns near the site where Gabay was killed.
Gabay served as first deputy counsel for the Empire State Development Corp., which the Times described as New York State’s main economic development agency.
“He could have been at any law firm he wanted to be, making multiples of what we paid him,” Cuomo said of Gabay.
“He worked for the state because he wanted to give back and he wanted to do the right thing.” Cuomo said.
Davis said police had recovered at least one gun from the scene, a 45-caliber MAC-10, and were gathering video surveillance footage from local businesses in hopes of developing more leads.
The J’ouvert celebration has been the scene of violence in previous years as well, the Times said.
A gunman opened fire into a crowd last year, killing one and injuring two, and two people were stabbed to death in 2012, the newspaper said.
