12 shot, 3 fatally, as multiple shooters open fire in NYC nightclub: NYPD

At least 42 shell casings have been recovered from the scene, police said.

Three men, including a 19-year-old, were killed and nine other people were injured early Sunday when a dispute inside a crowded New York City nightclub erupted into a shooting incident that police said appeared to have involved multiple gunmen firing dozens of shots.

No one has been arrested in the deadly incident, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a noon news conference on Sunday, which followed an initial press conference she gave earlier in the morning. Police are examining security footage and interviewing witnesses in an effort to identify the shooters, Tisch also said.

Tisch said the shooting appears to be gang related but declined to elaborate, citing the ongoing investigation. She said that up to four gunmen opened fire inside the nightclub, hitting numerous bystanders.

The shooting unfolded around 3:27 a.m. Sunday inside the Taste of the City Lounge in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, which Tisch said was packed with patrons at the time of the incident.

The commissioner said officers arrived at the lounge on Franklin Avenue within minutes of the first 911 calls reporting the shooting and found a chaotic scene, with multiple victims ranging in age from 19 to 61 inside the nightclub suffering from gunshot wounds.

Tisch said two of the victims -- a 27-year-old man and a 35-year-old man, were taken to hospitals, where they were pronounced dead. She said the third fatality was a 19-year-old man, who died at the scene. She said the surviving victims, three women and six men, were taken to hospitals with what appeared to be non-life-threatening injuries.

"What we know preliminarily is there was a dispute inside a crowded club that led to the shooting," said Tisch. "We have multiple shooters involved in this shooting."

Tisch said investigators had collected at least 42 shell casings from inside the lounge that came from 9mm and .45-caliber weapons.

A firearm was recovered nearby in the vicinity of Bedford Avenue and Eastern Parkway, Tisch said, adding that police were investigating whether it was involved in the shooting.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams asked for the public's help in bringing the perpetrators to justice.

"If you were inside the club, if you heard individuals talking about this shooting, if you witnessed someone fleeing the location, every piece of information would allow us to put the puzzle together to solve this crime," Adams said in a statement.

The shooting occurred as the NYPD has recorded the lowest number of shootings on record for the first seven months of the year, Tisch said. According to NYPD citywide crime statistics as of Aug. 10, the number of shooting victims had fallen nearly 22% this year compared to the same period last year, and the number of shooting incidents had declined 20.5% compared to the same period.

"Something like this is, of course, thank God, an anomaly and it's a terrible thing that happened this morning," Tisch said. "But we're going to investigate it and get to the bottom of what went down."