Migrants who sleep in a Brooklyn park say they’re shaken and frightened to return after a man was shot and killed there in one of two deadly shootings just blocks apart on Sunday night.
“Last night, people were just talking, smoking cigarettes, and suddenly someone showed up, took out a gun, and started shooting. Everyone left running,” Cesar Igarro, 21, said in Spanish. “I was sleeping at one of the tables, near the basketball court.”
NYPD officials said a man in his 30s was shot in the area of Flushing Avenue and Steuben Street, where the park is, in Clinton Hill. Officers responded to that incident around 10:45 p.m., then minutes later were called to another fatal shooting of a 21-year-old, in front of a nearby migrant shelter on Ryerson Street, authorities said.
A 59-year-old man was also shot in the incident on Ryerson Street and was listed in critical condition, according to NYPD officials.
Igarro and several other men outside the shelter said they and the man in his 30s were migrants who regularly sleep in the park. Igarro said he was friendly with the deceased man, but only knew him by a nickname. Police have not released the names of the shooting victims.
“I feel horrible. He was alone here in this country, like all of us,” Igarro said. “We think it will be safer in the United States, but here it’s the same – you still see violence, you still feel unsafe.”
Another man, 27-year-old Jose Manuel Colmenares, said the migrants have no choice but to sleep in the park, having reached their time limit in the city’s shelter system.
“Honestly, we’re homeless. Last night, there was nowhere to hide, nowhere to sleep. And tonight we’re going to still be here with the trauma that this person can come back,” Colmenares said. “It’s really scary.”
Colmenares continued, “If I was able to book a flight, I’d go back [to Venezuela] right now, without any money. It’s not all rosy here in America, it’s not like people think.”
It wasn’t immediately clear on Monday morning if police had arrested anyone in the two shooting incidents. Brooklyn Councilmember Crystal Hudson, whose district includes the area, said in a statement that police had “apprehended” a suspect and believed the shootings near the migrant center were related, but the NYPD has not confirmed any of those details.
Hudson’s office said the NYPD’s 88th Precinct pledged to step up police presence in the area by the park.
Mark Porgesz, who works at a business across the street from the park, said he’s sometimes nervous to go outside.
“I don’t know what they can do, but they got to do something,” he said. “It’s getting out of hand. Kids used to come play over here, now everybody’s afraid to come in there.”
Hudson said she was in touch with Mayor Eric Adams’ office and the NYPD and would continue to update the community. New York Attorney General Letitia James also said she was in touch with local police about the shootings.
The two deaths in Brooklyn were among four fatal shootings citywide over the weekend.
Shootings are down about 9% citywide compared to this time in 2023, and are also down in the neighborhoods where this weekend’s deadly shootings took place.