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This year’s Labor Day weekend marked the 57th Annual J’Ouvert and West Indian Day parade on Monday, Sept 2. Thousands showed up to march down Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn to celebrate Caribbean pride, diaspora, and culture.
The jubilation officially kicked off at 6 a.m. with J’Ouvert, meaning ‘daybreak,’ where people danced in the streets with steel bands while throwing paint, powder, and oil as a symbol of freedom and cultural expression.
The gated route went from Flatbush Avenue to Empire Boulevard in Crown Heights in Brooklyn. It was outfitted with flood lighting and additional officers screening for alcohol and weapons, said the city. This portion of the event “was probably one of the safest J’ouverts we’ve had three years in a row” thanks to the efforts of crisis management teams (CMS), local clergy leaders, and the New York City Police Department (NYPD) removing at least 25 guns off the streets, said Mayor Eric Adams at his Tuesday morning press briefing.
After J’Ouvert, the West Indian Day carnival and parade began at 11 a.m. on Eastern Parkway with giant floats, steel-pan and calypso bands, reggae and soca music, and elaborate masqueraders (Mas) in decked out costumes. The event of Mas goes back to the days of slavery, when on the plantation, the ‘Lord and Ladies’ would gather for masquerade balls. The route marched down the parkway from Utica Avenue to Grand Army Plaza.
City and state electeds including State Attorney General Letitia James, Adams and city hall staffers, Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson; Councilmembers Yusef Salaam, Sandy Nurse, Chris Banks, Crystal Hudson, Farah Louis, Rita Joseph; and Assemblymembers Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, Brian Cunnigham, and Stefani Zinerman were all spotted waving their flags and marching with parade goers.
The festivities were briefly interrupted by sudden gunfire on Monday afternoon, but the parade continued. The NYPD reported that at 2:35 p.m. on Monday, a Black male shooter “intentionally” fired shots into the crowd at Eastern Parkway and Franklin Avenue. A 69-year-old female was shot in the right shoulder, a 64-year-old male was shot in the right arm, a 36-year-old male received a gunshot wound to the head, a 25-year-old male was shot in the stomach, and a 16-year-old male was hit in the left arm. The police weren’t sure who the intended target was at the time of the shooting.
Adams maintained that the city had been “proactive” with a “well-executed” safety plan all things considered. “How do you stop a nut from taking a gun, shooting it at a crowd of five people?” asked Adams at the briefing. “No telling how many shootings we prevented. These random acts of violence. We had police coverage there.”
The five shooting victims were taken to Kings County Hospital. The 25-year-old male shot in the stomach died from his injuries. He was later identified as Denzel A. Chan, who was visiting from Spring, Texas.
“I know one person died,” said Adams. “Our hearts go out to the family members, because you come out to celebrate [and] you don’t want to come out and have that violence that we’ve seen in the past.”
“I am saddened and horrified by today’s shooting at the West Indian American Day Parade in Brooklyn. My prayers are with the victims and their families during this difficult time. The parade is a beautiful display of culture and community that I have been honored to attend over the years, including this year,” said House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who was also at the parade, about the shooting. “Every American should be able to celebrate their heritage without the threat of gun violence. No one in Brooklyn, New York or America is safe until we get weapons of war off our streets. America cannot be the best version of herself until we crush the scourge of gun violence once and for all.”
Adams adamantly declined ideas about canceling J’Ouvert and the parade in the future.