One person has died and three left wounded after shots were fired at a music venue, Irving Plaza, near New York City’s Union Square. The crowd ran for cover outside.
Around 10:00pm Wednesday in New York, shots fired toward Irving Plaza in Union Square left one person dead and three people wounded, as the crowd panically ran for cover outside the concert venue.
A man, aged 34, was wounded in the chest at around 10:15pm local time and was reported to be in critical condition. Another man, 33, suffered a shot to the stomach, and a woman, 26, was shot in the left leg, officials told NYC-based affiliate WCBS.
A fourth victim's status is yet to be determined, according to WCBS, but he or she reportedly walked to NYU Langone Medical Center.
WCBS sources said the shots occurred after a "quarrel backstage."
NYPD Chief William Aubry told WNBC the shooting occurred on the third floor of the venue in the green room. The venue was locked down and nearby streets were blocked off as police stormed inside with riot shields.
The three men, one of whom died, and a woman were all shot in the green room, police said, according to WNBC.
Video footage distributed on Twitter captured the moment that the concert audience heard the shots.
An ambulance was seen driving from the scene at around 11:00pm.
An Atlanta-based hip-hop artist, T. I., had been headlining the show, but had yet to take the stage. This is not the first of his events have witnessed gunfire. Ten years ago in Cincinnati, T.I.'s friend and personal assistant, Philant Johnson, was fatally shot.
The ambulance may have been transporting concert-goers injured in the rush to escape the danger.
“It was about to go on. We saw, like, two people up on the VIP arguing, and then everybody started running because they heard the shots,” a woman attending the show told WCBS. “It was terrifying. We just kept running with everybody else because they were running for their lives, so we just started running, and I fell, and I got stomped on a little bit. My shoe came off.”
“We had no idea where it was coming from, so we just were running out for the exit, you know, anywhere we possibly could,” a male witness added.
The New York Post reported over 1,000 people were inside the venue at the time.
According to WNBC, the NYPD confirmed that the venue's security protocol, which included metal detectors, was followed. However, another witness said there were not full searches at the door prior to the event:
More witness accounts are being uploaded on Twitter: