Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 2 Evacuated Today After Gunfire Reported

By on April 15, 2015 10:55 pm in brooklyn bridge park, News

Update: The shooter has been arrested; fortunately, no one was shot. Thanks to reader “Bornhere” for the tip.

Details are sketchy, but Gothamist reports that there were unconfirmed reports of gunfire at Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 2 (photo) this afternoon. Brooklyn Heights resident Thomas Hynes is quoted as saying he heard gunshots, and that there was a subsequent evacuation of the pier.

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  • Boerum Bill

    To Hell with cops! We need ORDER not MURDER! We need The Guardian Angels to have a presence at BBP. Why is it I only see them at the Atlantic Frantic?!

  • StudioBrooklyn

    Never said you were racist. Just trying to be candid about demographic dynamics that are indeed at play here.

    Focusing on the park affects people in the park and (maybe) BH residents, but doesn’t address the issue, which will continue to be a problem if neighborhoods all just try to cover themselves. I don’t think we should act as though we’re unaffected by what goes on elsewhere in the city, and as an extension of that thought I think emphasizing more police in the park is a really good way to say “let’s just make our neighborhood appear safer and wash our hands of the problem”.

    But I don’t know, maybe both can and should be done? Obviously policing efforts don’t come out of the same budget as, say, education or family assistance. But again, I think if BH residents are saying “more police here” we should also be saying “more solutions where the problems actually originate” as well. To do otherwise seems disingenuous/myopic to me.

  • Willow Street Watch

    We can all start by being far more vocal. Everyone on here should be making serious noise on every call-in radio program they can get on.
    Radio makes different and in some ways far more social and political waves. Everyone should show up at the next (carefully non advertised) 84th pct community council meeting..after calling the press announcing that you’re going and why. Everyone should be storm calling the 84 pct community affairs office along with every elected official you can. Don’t scoff, when the noise reaches critical mass you’ll see how “available” better security instantly becomes. This was all done in the 1976 to 80 era and a wide range of serious problem including violent crime was driven sharply down. But people have to stop talking get up an do something….

  • Concerned

    Like I said before, I agree with your points regarding violent crime being a bigger problem. I also understand that some more police at BBP is merely a band aid for a much bigger problem in parts of the city. But if we can make this new and beautiful park a safe place for everyone, then it becomes a safe haven for those who don’t have a safe haven in their own neighborhood. It allows all of Brooklyn (all demographics) to organize in a nice place where we can all benefit. I’d like to make every neighborhood safe and will continue to support efforts that do, but that is long term issue that has a ton of variables. I’m just trying to keep the new park safe for all those who want to use it without causing trouble. If adding a few more cops a day will do that, I’m for it.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    I agree with your sentiments. But as I said before (that last “I” would have been italicized by the way) I think the park is kinda already serving that purpose (as a safe haven, etc.), and in fact the incident yesterday might even be evidence of that, considering how isolated it was.

  • Concerned

    I hope you’re right.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    Me too! But honestly that conclusion sounds like it would be really difficult to measure. I’m imagining some sociology grad student interns posted at the park entrances stopping people and asking them about their demographic background and quietly slipping in the question “would you mind telling me whether you’re prepared to murder anyone today?”

  • StoptheChop

    And yet, those of us who advocate for our neighborhood are too often told to shut up and go away– we don’t have any standing (as opposed to developers and the tourist industry, who are apparently the only “legitimate” stakeholders).

  • Banet

    I’m just curious, does anyone remember or know the last time there was gunfire in Brooklyn Heights?

    I’ve been here 15 years and don’t recall it ever happening.

  • Concerned

    There was a shooting on Clark Street by Monroe within the last 5 years. You can probably find it on this blog.

  • rocky

    August 1st 2010.

  • ShinyNewHandle

    There were fisticuffs on Middagh St. the afternoon of the park gunfire. (Teenagers testing their skillz—they broke off when they saw they were creating a scene.)

  • gormley

    The “more cops” discussion is amusing based on what I witnessed during
    moments after the shots were fired. 3 police officers arrived on the
    scene yet a dozen or so of these kids continued to posture, threaten and
    stalk 3 other kids. Then when the officers were by the basketball court
    picnic tables and were attempting to get control of way more than “30
    kids” some of these children still continued to instigate, ignore the
    cops orders, etc. Then a kid circumvented the officers and physically
    assaulted another kid that was the focus of many in the crowd. This then
    created a secondary wave of mass running from the scene just as the
    initial shots cleared a lot of the pier. Again, many of them were
    completely undeterred even when multiple officers were just feet from them
    and even when one took out his baton.

    The police officers I witnessed were incredibly controlled and showed
    great restraint. Especially, responding to shots fired and someone
    potentially having a gun in a crowd of hundreds.

    They
    cleared the pier completely. This pushed all the kids south towards
    Joralemon.. And that’s when more nonsense took place. Saw a girl
    mouthing off and not moving away from the arrest perimeter get pepper
    sprayed after she decided to get physical with an officer. Trash cans
    were turned over and an individual had to be held back after she started
    going ballistic on a guy in his car that honked because people were
    blocking the street. etc. etc. etc.

    Still amazed only a handful got arrested.

  • Concerned

    More police probably wouldn’t have helped the situation at that point. However, more police prior to the escalation could have dispersed crowds and potentially prevented a shooting. Prevention.

  • gormley

    I’m all for it.

    It just struck me while watching it unfold that there isn’t much some individuals will respond to regardless of the severity and consequences of whatever impulse they are feeling.

  • gormley

    This is just silly nonsense.

  • Bornhere
  • Bornhere

    I miss the neighborhood I was born into. I was never in favor of The Park (I am way too old-school — and, probably, old), because I knew that, despite the possible positives, the noise/crowding/traffic AND the loss of the sense of old piers, the sense of the area’s maritime/shipping history, and such would just make the trade-off inequitable. Even without the noise/crowding/traffic, there is something so manufactured about the park. Nothing stays the same — but what has happened here in the last few years has not been an evolution — it’s been a takeover and reinvention. And here we are.

  • petercow

    Yup. Deterrence. If they drop a box of Popeyes chicken on the street.. ticket ’em.

  • GHB

    Bring in some new donut shops, and there’s guaranteed to be a greater police presence in The Heights!

  • Teresa

    According to that Daily News update, there were 11 crimes reported in BBP in the second half of last year. 11. I think more than that are reported in a fortnight of Heather’s blotters.

    11 crimes. 11. But, yes, by all means, let’s increase police presence to the point that visitors to a public park are intimidated enough to perhaps, oh, maybe not come here at all. Because that’s a strategy that’s working so well elsewhere in the city, along with alienating communities of color.

  • Concerned

    So you believe that a few more police in uniform in and around the park will 1) intimidate people from attending, 2) alienate communities of color. That seems like a complete impossibility unless you are envisioning (or are attempting to disingenuously make your point by polarizing others’ positions to an absurd extreme) a large force of police hovering over all. The only arguments in favor of more police that I’ve seen on this blog are requesting some more visible presence both in and around the park. I am in the park 5 days a week and I rarely see uniformed police around. Moreover, did the daily news (or you) consider the surrounding neighborhoods in their crime statistics? It doesn’t look like it.
    Once again, no one is requesting an army to “intimidate”. Let’s have a meaningful dialogue as to what the community believes is needed, from all sides.

  • petercow

    Agreed! Wilding is part of the “gorgeous mosaic”.

  • Jorale-man

    I’d maintain that this is an outgrowth of the way the park is being designed. If, instead of so much concrete, pavement and sports facilities, BBP had emphasized greenery (trees, grass, flowers, etc.), there might be a more serene atmosphere as well. One’s environment impacts behavior. Granted it will never be a bucolic escape (the BQE prevents that) but the BBP designers could smooth off some of the park’s hard edges. Maybe things will change once it’s finally complete.

  • Mimi

    I share your exact feelings. I will say it exactly as I feel it: the park has ruined this neighborhood. I will say it again: the park has ruined this neighborhood.

  • Willow Street Watch

    Nah just give the darlings a choice of say, three kinds of music on the park wide music/public address system:
    1) old timey
    2) Rockabilly (put on…Shake em up…by the Benny cliff trio)
    3) Surf (especially the astronauts.. And put their pictures up in big color
    Posters…

  • Willow Street Watch

    Eleven REPORTED crimes…want to guess the real number of “incidents”” which have really resulted from 1) the park and 2) the lack of adaquate
    Police patrol strength? Just ask all the residents of Jorelemon….

  • Willow Street Watch

    Here’s some reality…if I or some of my friends go down there and just a) call police every time we see something serious and
    B) police simply toss these guys and this c) results in a series of felony arrests and d) the reports are done so that the perps and their friends can’t find where the calls are coming from….you’ll see how fast the park will become clear of any and all “disorderly” types…

    Don’t think this is how it works? Think that crime is somehow some kind of intractable problem that “you can’t do anything out” really? Well that’s exactly what all kinds of “experts”, pols, academics and other ” observers” said about the violent crime and drugs which plagued the Heights in the mid 70’s to early 80’s until a group of Heights residents simply began to unrelentingly make the bad guys lives unbearable to the point they fled the Heights or learned to be very quiet and behave…

    This is what needed here, to stop stop theorizing, complaining and making excuses, you want a safer park or Heights? Well that’s what god invented cell phones for; call it in and unrelentingly make their lives unlivable, accurate information is needed, what really counts here is solid collars which results in convictions. But even if your efforts only result in bad guys being questioned it still “sends a clear message” to stop street games or leave the area….but YOU have to make effort guys….

  • Willow Street Watch

    Environments can greatly effect the psych and thus social atmosphere, but Central and Prospect parks had lots of leafy greens at the height of the violent crime and drugs of the 70’s. and you needed ten “hamburger helpers” to walk around inside or on the surrounding streets.

    The basic things which control distructive behavior is good arrests, and convictions, both caused by a public or even a well organized group of activists who won’t allow nonesense.

    No, this doesn’t get to the real depth of the syndromes afflicting, I would argue destroying, this country. But its like a cancer patient whose just been shot. First you have to stem the emergency condition.

    But the real and only control and healing for what is happening now are things which have noting to do with police, courts, punishment, that’s the stemming of emergency bleeding. But the answer to the deeper and more
    Omni conditions are things that a lot of Heights people are not in support of or are directly hostile to. The real preventative of the kind of incident such as what just occurred in BBP are things like God, Family and Country…..without these most basic and indispensable nation protecting factors, no society can prevent and repair dosorder and decay.

    Want a safer park or Heights or country, well you will have to rediscover the basic things which deliver and really secure a society and nation

  • memeadjuster

    What? How can we control or chastise who sells what to whom?

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