At least 2 people shot at New York’s West Indian American Day Parade, police say

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City’s West Indian American Day Parade, one of the world’s largest celebrations of Caribbean culture, was marred by a shooting Monday along the parade route.

At least two people were wounded by gunfire around 2:35 p.m., police said, hours after the parade kicked off with thousands of revelers dancing and marching through Brooklyn.

Details on their conditions and the extent of their injuries were not immediately available, police said.

An Associated Press videographer saw at least two people being treated next to the parade route on Eastern Parkway for what appeared to be wounds to the face and arm.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was marching in the parade at the time, but completed the route.

Police cordoned off an area adjacent to the parade route, where they had placed crime scene markers. The parade continued flowing past as officers were seen bagging items.

The parade, an annual Labor Day event in its 57th year, turns the thoroughfare into a kaleidoscope of feather-covered costumes and colorful flags as participants make their way down the thoroughfare alongside floats stacked high with speakers playing soca and reggae music.

The parade routinely attracts huge crowds, who line the almost 2-mile (3.2-kilometer) route that runs from Crown Heights to the Brooklyn Museum. It’s also a popular destination for local politicians, many of whom have West Indian heritage or represent members of the city’s large Caribbean community.

Though a joyous occasion, the parade and related celebrations have been plagued by violence over the years.

In 2016, two people were killed and several others were wounded near the parade route. The year before, Carey Gabay, an aide to then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo was shot in the head during pre-parade festivities. He died nine days later.

The West Indian American Day Parade has its roots in more traditionally timed, pre-Lent Carnival celebrations started by a Trinidadian immigrant in Manhattan around a century ago, according to the organizers. The festivities were moved to the warmer time of year in the 1940s.

Brooklyn, where hundreds of thousands of Caribbean immigrants and their descendants have settled, began hosting the parade in the 1960s.

The Labor Day parade is now the culmination of days of carnival events in the city, which includes a steel pan band competition and J’Ouvert, a separate street party commemorating freedom from slavery.