The Daily Populous Sunday January 26th, 2025 night edition
Authored by nbcnewyork.com and submitted by BiggieTwiggy1two3

Seven people are facing criminal charges stemming from last year's deadly baby shower in Queens when officials said a gang-related shootout tore apart the celebration and resulted in the killing of a 24-year-old man.

The district attorney in the borough released details Friday from a 55-count grand jury indictment identifying six men, and a seventh person not yet arrested, allegedly involved in the May 4 gun battle.

According to DA Melinda Katz's office, two men approached the Volume Seventeen venue in Richmond Hill around 1:30 a.m. and opened fire on a group of about a dozen people who had been standing around outside. The group scattered, with many running for cover inside.

The indictment alleges the men continued firing through the windows of the venue, injuring three people and fatally striking 24-year-old Jefari Dobie-Reinhardt, of Great Neck.

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More than 40 people had gathered at the Atlantic Avenue venue for the baby shower, including four young children, prosecutors said.

Surveillance video recovered around the time of the shooting captured the sound of gunshots, just as a white car was seen speeding away from the area. Additional video from the scene shows detectives pouring through a crime scene littered with party decorations and dozens of bullet casings.

"It was a scene out of the Wild West with at least 35 bullet casings recovered as two groups of rivals fired at each other, and a 24-year-old man lost his life in the process," Katz said in a statement.

Four men in their early 20s were each charged in with criminal possession of a weapon, reckless endangerment, criminal possession of a firearm, endangering the welfare of a child. One of those men, a 20-year-old, allegedly snuck a gun into a tray of food and carried it out of the venue.

A 50-year-old Brooklyn man was also hit with weapons charges and tampering with physical evidence. Katz's office said he was the expecting grandfather at the baby shower and dropped a gun into a tray of rice after the firearm was handed to him. The man's 26-year-old son was charged with tampering for allegedly placing a cover over the tray of rice.

According to the district attorney, a 9 mm Sig Sauer pistol was found in a tray of rice inside of a garbage bag at the venue.

Following the shooting, neighbors told News 4 that the venue typically hosts parties that get out of control.

"This place is a problem. Since it opened it’s a problem: fighting, drugs, gunshots," Wasir Rasul, who has lived in the area for nearly 20 years, said. "I hope they close it down after this."

Red12343 on January 25th, 2025 at 23:24 UTC »

So post the shooting that resulted in cops being called guests who shouldn’t have had guns (or didn’t want to be caught with guns that had been used) tried to hide them and some were hid in food.

chacmool on January 25th, 2025 at 20:22 UTC »

1:30 am baby shower?