News is coming in this morning that four people are dead in a shooting that occurred last night around midnight at 318 Maujer Street (between Waterbury and Morgan) in East Williamsburg. At press time, the shooter, who was also found dead, has not been identified by the NYPD, but police sources have suggested that the motive was that he had had been kicked out of a band. The New York Times reports that neighbors identified the band as The Yellow Dogs, an Iranian band that lived in the building along with the Iranian graffiti artists Icy and Sot, according to Bedford and Bowery, and was a fixture on the local scene: they hosted big parties at their own home and had recent performance dates at Shea Stadium and Brooklyn Bowl. The Daily News identifies the victims as Soroush Farazmand, Arash Farazmand and Ali Eskandarian, all in their late 20’s or early 30’s. The Post states that the weapon used was a semi-automatic rifle found next to the shooter. The fourth victim was shot in the leg but survived, and is currently being treated at Elmhurst Hospital; two other people were in the building at the time of the shooting, and are being questioned by police detectives today.
This is a tragedy for the community. We’ll continue to update as we find out more.
UPDATE: The New York Post reports that the NYPD has identified the shooter as Raefe Ahkbar.
SECOND UPDATE: A source tells Bushwick Daily that either two or three members of The Yellow Dogs were not home at the time of the shooting and be alive: founding member Koory Mirz and another member named Siavash Karampour, both pictured in this photo from The Daily News. Bushwick Daily has reached out for confirmation and will update accordingly.
THIRD UPDATE: The Yellow Dogs manager shared a statement via Pitchfork that the shooter was not in fact a member of the Yellow Dogs; it remains unclear which band he was a member of. It’s also stated that only two of the deceased were members of Yellow Dogs; Sourosh Farazmand was the band’s guitarist, and Arash Farazmand was its drummer, and the third victim, Ali Eskandarian was musician and a friend of the band’s, but not a member proper.
If you have any tips or news about the incident, please email emilie[at]bushwickdaily.com.
Photos shot onsite earlier today:
