A knife-wielding attacker stabbed three men in the neck and face across Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighbourhood within roughly 25 minutes on Monday morning, just as J’Ouvert celebrations began ahead of New York’s West Indian American Day Carnival, with police now believing all three attacks were carried out by the same suspect.
Three men were stabbed in the neck and face in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighbourhood just hours before New York City’s Carnival parade was due to begin, the NYPD said. The violence broke out at around 5.48am on Monday, with police now believing all three attacks were carried out by a single suspect who remains at large. The stabbings occurred just as thousands of people were beginning to gather for J’Ouvert, the pre-dawn street celebration that opens the annual West Indian American Day Carnival.
How the attacks unfolded
The first attack took place at 5.48am near Carroll Street and Utica Avenue, where officers found a 23-year-old man with a stab wound to the neck and a 36-year-old man with a wound to the face. Roughly 24 minutes later, at approximately 6.12am, police were called to a third stabbing at the intersection of Utica Avenue and President Street, where a 32-year-old man had also been stabbed in the neck.
All three men were taken to Kings County Hospital. The 32-year-old remains in critical condition, while the other two victims are described as stable. All three are expected to survive.
The search for the suspect
A manhunt is currently under way for the attacker, who remains on the loose. Police have described him as a dark-complexioned man wearing grey jeans and a dark or black T-shirt, who fled the scene in an unknown direction. No arrests had been made as of the latest update, and investigators have not announced a motive for the attacks. There is currently no indication that the stabbings were connected to the Carnival itself, to any particular gang, or to a dispute among parade participants. Anyone with information about the case or the suspect’s whereabouts is urged to contact the NYPD.
A heavily secured event
The attacks occurred against the backdrop of significantly increased security measures for this year’s Carnival, which had already been put in place before the stabbings took place. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said thousands of officers were being deployed for the event, supported by specialised units, drones and barricades. The force had also introduced security screening at parade viewing areas, along with multiple controlled entry points.
Organisers have also deliberately shortened this year’s parade, which is scheduled to conclude at 5.30pm, 30 minutes earlier than in previous years. Tisch said the earlier finish was intended to reduce violence that has historically been associated with the end of the event, a decision that followed six people being shot during last year’s Carnival festivities, according to Tisch.
City officials said their security briefing had identified shootings both on and around the parade route during each of the previous two years, prompting what they described as a zero-tolerance approach to violence at this year’s event. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who joined Tisch at the security briefing, said the shootings in recent years had endangered innocent people and overshadowed what is meant to be a cultural celebration.
About the Carnival
The West Indian American Day Carnival is an annual celebration held over the Labor Day weekend, marking Caribbean culture, music and heritage. The multi-day event culminates in a grand finale parade along Eastern Parkway, drawing between one million and three million spectators, and is recognised as the largest Caribbean carnival in North America and one of the biggest parades held anywhere in the city, according to the West Indian American Day Carnival Association.
This year’s parade route runs along Eastern Parkway, with wider Carnival activities extending to streets around Crown Heights and Prospect Heights. Monday’s festivities began at 6am with J’Ouvert, the pre-dawn street party in which revellers march and dance through the streets, meaning the stabbings took place almost simultaneously with the start of the day’s celebrations, despite one of the NYPD’s largest planned security deployments of the year already being in place.
