(UPDATE: Gunman seen in video believed to be Brooklyn rapper Ronald “Troy Ave” Collins. He is currently in the hospital with a gunshot wound, believed to be self-inflicted. Charges are expected to be filed soon.)
(Scroll down for video) — At approximately 10:15 p.m. Wednesday, four people — three men and a woman — were shot at Irving Plaza, a concert hall in Lower Manhattan where rapper T.I. was set to perform. One of the victims has died. The conditions of the other three victims were unknown, NYPD Detective William Aubry said in a press conference.
No one is in custody, and police said they are looking for video of the incident. The concert had begun when the shooting took place, though T.I. hadn’t taken the stage.
Rappers Marino and Uncle Murda were performing, opening for T.I., when fans began stampeding toward the exits of the 1,025-person ballroom theater, NBC reported.
“Everybody was having a good time until everybody started running — that’s it,” a concertgoer told the station, wishing to remain anonymous. He also said that several fans fell during the rush to the exits.
Another concertgoer confirmed these reports.
“Right when he was about to go on I heard two gunshots, and right after, there was a stampede,” Ayo Fagbemi, a 21-year-old University of Pennsylvania student, told the New York Times. “There were at least three rounds, but after the second one was when people started running.”
Several Twitter users have posted video they captured of the confused stampede.
Aubry said the shooting took place backstage, in the venue’s third floor green room, which is generally reserved for VIP guests. Irving Plaza reportedly has metal detectors that screen fans attending the show for weapons, and it remains unclear how the gun was brought inside.
Before the shooting, a fight allegedly broke out backstage, which spilled onto the stage during Marino and Uncle Murda’s performance.
Thirty-four-year-old concertgoer Paul Cantor said a body flew onto the stage, as if it was recoiling from a punch. “There was a body that came across the stage, sort of with flailing arms,” he told the NYT. It is unclear if the fight and the shooting are related, though the gunshots were heard seconds after the flailing body appeared.
Police said one of the victims is New York rapper Troy Ave, WPIX reported. He was reportedly shot in the leg, and his condition is unknown.
Atlanta-born T.I., a multiplatinum rapper and actor who is appearing in the upcoming reboot of “Roots,” has not commented on the shooting. In 2006, another shooting at one of his shows in Cincinnati killed his 26-year-old personal assistant and friend Philant Johnson.
In 2009, T.I., whose given name is Clifford Harris, Jr. pleaded guilty to three federal weapons charges. He was arrested in Atlanta in 2007 by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives after his bodyguard attempted to buy machine guns from undercover agents. After searching the rapper’s car, they found three more firearms, Pitchfork reported. In 2010, he returned to prison for violating the conditions of his parole.
Since then, he has discussed the dangers of guns in the MTV series “T.I.’s Road to Redemption.”
