Early this morning, two men were shot outside the music venue and record store Rough Trade in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, after a sold-out Freddie Gibbs concert. It is believed that Gibbs was the target of the shooting, which occurred just after 1:00 AM, but he was able to escape unharmed. Instead, the shots hit two men believed to be part of Gibbs’s entourage.
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Gibbs was in a black GMC Denali when the shots were fired, but ran back inside the venue after the shooting. He was quoted by the New York Post as saying, “They tried to kill Tupac. They tried to kill me. I’m still alive.”
The gunman (some reports suggest there were two) was wearing a dark hoodie, and witnesses told us he fled east on North 9th Street. There have been no arrests, and Rough Trade declined to comment.
“I heard gunshots. There were a lot of them but I assumed it was just fireworks,” one witness who lives on the block told us. “There were two different sets, one of maybe six and one of four.” Cops on the scene Tuesday told us the bullets were .45 caliber, and we found three bullet holes in the doors to the venue.
After observing Rough Trade’s security footage, a police investigator noted the suspect stalking Gibbs’s crew, and at one point even standing right next to Gibbs himself. “He was standing around you guys all night,” he told the rapper, according to the Post. “He was stalking you guys. We can tell on camera, he wanted it to look like he knew you, but it’s clear he didn’t. When you guys left, he was waiting for you outside.”
Rough Trade’s residential neighbors were understandably a bit shaken up when we spoke to them Tuesday afternoon.
“I have two kids and they sleep against the window here,” a woman named Jenny who lives across Wythe Avenue from the venue told us. “I’d never heard gunshots before.”
Both victims were taken to Bellevue Hospital, and are in stable condition.
Reporting was contributed by Matt Taylor.
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