Cuomo aide shot during parade

Associated Press

NEW YORK

The West Indian Day Parade, a rollicking, colorful celebration of Caribbean culture, music, style and food, rolled through New York City’s streets Monday but, once again, was marred by pre-dawn violence that left one man dead and an aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo in critical condition.

Cuomo identified his wounded staffer as Carey Gabay, a first deputy general counsel at the Empire State Development Corp. Gabay was walking with his brother near the Brooklyn parade route at 3:40 a.m. when he was caught in the crossfire between two gangs, according to police officials.

The pair had been walking back from a pre-parade party celebrating West Indian Day.

A bullet struck Gabay, 43, in the head. Cuomo said Gabay is a Harvard-educated lawyer who had worked as an assistant counsel to the governor.

“I’m the governor of the state of New York, and there’s not a thing I can do,” Cuomo told reporters after he visited Gabay’s family at Kings County Hospital. “There’s not a thing I can say, and there’s nothing I can do. And sometimes it just hurts.”

Gabay’s condition remained critical Monday night after surgery, according to a governor spokeswoman.

No arrests have been made been, police said. The shooting was one of several outbursts of violence in the neighborhoods surrounding the parade, which included the stabbing death of a 24-year-old man at 2 a.m. near Grand Army Plaza.

Bloodshed before or after the West Indian Day celebration has become a sadly familiar part of the parade routine. Last year, a recent parolee opened fire into a crowd of revelers, killing one man and wounding several others. And in 2013, a 1-year-old boy sitting in his stroller was killed by a bullet meant for his father.