Crown Heights residents mourn after hookah lounge shooting kills 3, injures 11
Two days after a mass shooting at a hookah lounge in her Crown Heights neighborhood, Chenille Blue said she’s still too scared to go outside.
She had been at the Taste of the City Lounge just two hours before the shooting early Sunday morning, picking up chicken wings for a friend. By 3:30 a.m., when the gunfire began, she was sitting on her stoop.
“I see people running… my heart's still beating,” said Blue, who said she’s lived in the neighborhood for 20 years. “I’m saying thank God the person didn't come out shooting because God forbid I could have got hit.”
Across the neighborhood, residents on Monday said they felt shaken by the shooting that killed three people and injured 11 others. Residents, violence prevention workers and city and state leaders gathered in a show of community strength.
“I pray that this incident will not define this community,” state Attorney General Letitia James said at the rally. “I pray that we recognize that there are too many mothers and grandmothers and fathers and grandfathers who are crying. And we have the power to stop the violence.”
Mayor Eric Adams echoed the sentiment.
“What happened in the Taste of the City is not a reflection of our city,” he told those gathered. “This is a reflection of our city – the people who are here showing support for each other.”
