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by mine » September 5th, 2005, 9:41 pm
ONE DEAD, 5 HURT IN W. INDIAN PRE-PARTY
September 5, 2005 -- A 24-year-old Brooklyn man was killed and five other people wounded in separate incidents during pre-dawn celebrations leading up to today's West Indian Day parade, law enforcement sources said.
Winfield Gaston, was fatally shot in the head around 10:20 p.m. as revelers took to the streets in Brooklyn for the pre-festival festivities known as J'ouvert.
"The West Indian Parade is [today], but they party the night before," said a 33-year-old teacher who heard the fatal shots fired in front of his apartment building on Winthrop Street near Flatbush Avenue in Flatbush.
"It's crowded outside, everybody's outside. The whole block is blocked off. There were about a million cops out there," he said.
"It sounded like a . . . verbal fight before the actual gunfire. There were several shots, too many to count. I was looking out the window afterwards and there was a kid, an associate of the guy who was shot, who was crying in the street." The sources said Gaston wore the colors and insignia of the Crips gang and had been shot twice in the past.
In addition, police said five Brooklyn party-goers were victims of gunplay.
* A woman was shot in the leg at the intersection of Empire Blvd and Nostrand Avenue.
* At Church and E. 46th Street, someone sprayed gunfire into a crowd, injuring three in their legs.
* A man was shot and wounded not far away, the sources said without disclosing the exact location.
