Three men were stabbed in the face and neck before sunrise Monday in Crown Heights, only blocks from Brooklyn’s J’Ouvert celebration and hours before the West Indian American Day Parade.

The attack landed at the worst possible moment: just as one of New York City’s biggest annual police deployments was moving into place for an event officials had vowed to keep safe.

News 12 Brooklyn reported that officers were called to Utica Avenue and Carroll Street in the Crown Heights neighborhood at about 5:48 a.m. after receiving reports that multiple people had been stabbed. That placed the emergency response in Brooklyn just minutes before J’Ouvert’s scheduled opening, with the main West Indian American Day Parade due to follow later that morning.

Police found a 23-year-old man and a 32-year-old man with stab wounds to the neck. A third man, 36, had been stabbed in the face.

All three were rushed to Kings County Hospital. The 32-year-old was initially listed in critical condition, while the other two men suffered injuries described as non-life-threatening.

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No deaths were reported.

Investigators did not immediately disclose what triggered the bloodshed. No suspect description was released in the early reports.

The call came roughly 12 minutes before J’Ouvert’s scheduled 6 a.m. start. The stabbing location was near the wider event footprint, but it was not presented by police as an attack inside a screened parade entrance.

The condition of the most seriously wounded victim improved as the morning went on.

FOX 5 New York later reported that all three men were in stable condition. The station also said no arrests had been made and the investigation was continuing through the parade morning.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani urged caution about connecting the attack to the wider celebration before investigators knew more. Police had not established that the stabbing was tied to J’Ouvert or the West Indian American Day Parade.

That distinction matters. The timing and location are undeniable, but proximity is not proof of motive or connection.

What is beyond dispute is that three men were cut down near a parade route before most New Yorkers had finished their first cup of coffee—and the attacker or attackers remained at large.

The later medical update eased the immediate fear that one of the men might die, but it did not answer who carried out the attack or why it happened.

The early-morning violence came despite a sweeping security operation announced only days earlier.

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According to the city’s official security briefing, thousands of NYPD officers were assigned to the parade routes and surrounding neighborhoods from Sunday night through Monday.

J’Ouvert spectators were funneled through 13 controlled entry points and screened with magnetometers. Weapons, alcohol, backpacks, large bags, drones and several other items were banned from the screened viewing areas.

The main West Indian American Day Parade was scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. and end at 5:30 p.m. Officials said the earlier ending was deliberate after six people were shot in three separate incidents on or near the route shortly after 5:30 p.m. during last year’s celebration.

The city also deployed mounted officers, K-9 teams, counterterrorism personnel, drones, field intelligence officers and a bomb squad. Commissioner Jessica Tisch called it one of the NYPD’s largest deployments of the year.

None of that erased the danger on the surrounding streets before the celebration even began.

The good news is that all three victims survived and stabilized. The unfinished business is finding whoever put them in the hospital.

The investigation remains active.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

 

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