Shooting in a crowded New York club leaves 3 dead despite record low gun violence

Members of the New York City police department (NYPD) investigate a shooting scene at Taste of the City lounge on August 17, 2025 in the Crown Heights neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough in New York City. (AFP)
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Updated 17 August 2025
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Shooting in a crowded New York club leaves 3 dead despite record low gun violence

  • The crime is the second mass shooting within weeks in New York City during a year that has otherwise seen declining gun violence

NEW YORK: A club shooting in the New York City borough of Brooklyn early Sunday morning has left three people dead and nine others wounded in a year of record low gun violence in the city.
Investigators believe up to four shooters opened fire with multiple weapons at Taste of the City Lounge in Crown Heights after a dispute just before 3:30 a.m. The violence appeared to be gang-related, New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters.
“It’s a terrible shooting that occurred in the city of New York,” Tisch said at a news briefing, later calling the killings “a tragic, senseless act of violence.”
The crime is the second mass shooting within weeks in New York City during a year that has otherwise seen declining gun violence. On July 29, a man stalked through a Manhattan office tower with a rifle, wounding one person and killing four others. A New York City police officer was among those who died.
Mayor Eric Adams said both recent shootings just reinforce “why we do this work of going after guns off our streets.”
“This is the second within weeks, and we don’t want this to turn into a normal course of doing business of violence in our city,” he said.
Those wounded Sunday were being treated at hospitals for non-life-threatening injuries, Tisch said. The ages of the victims range from 19 to 61. A 19-year-old man died at the scene and two other men — ages 35 and 27 — died after being transported to a hospital.
Investigators found at least 42 shell casings from 9 mm and .45-caliber weapons and a firearm in a nearby street.
Adams said crisis management teams had been mobilized to provide trauma services and facilitate mediation efforts with the victims’ friends and families to try to stop any retaliation. He asked members of the public who might have information about the shooting to help investigators by calling NYPD’s crime stoppers line, 800-577-TIPS.
“If you were inside the club, if you heard individuals talking about this shooting, if you witnessed someone fleeing the location, every piece of information will allow us to put the puzzle together,” Adams said.
Tisch said the violence erupted even as the city has reported the lowest number of shootings and shooting victims on record during the first seven months of 2025.
“Something like this is, of course, thank God, an anomaly and it’s a terrible thing that happened this morning, but we’re going to investigate and get to the bottom of what went down,” she said.


What Bangladesh’s election means for India, China and Pakistan ties

Bangladesh Nationalist Party supporters gather for a rally ahead of the upcoming national election, in Sylhet on Jan. 22, 2026.
Updated 08 February 2026
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What Bangladesh’s election means for India, China and Pakistan ties

  • Bangladeshis will vote on Feb. 12, almost two years after the 2024 student-led uprising
  • After nearly 2 years of tensions, experts expect a thaw with India under elected government

DHAKA: As Bangladesh prepares to hold its first elections since the 2024 ouster of Sheikh Hasina, its longest-serving prime minister, the outcome will define Dhaka’s relations with the most important regional powers — China, India, and Pakistan.

Nearly 128 million Bangladeshis will head to the polls on Feb. 12 to bring in new leadership after an 18-month rule of the current caretaker administration.

The interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, took control following a student-led uprising that ended 15 years in power of Hasina and her Awami League party.

The two main parties out of the 51 competing for power are the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami. The Awami League, which for decades has had close ties with India, was excluded from the election ballot over its role in the deadly crackdown on the 2024 student-led protests, in which 1,400 people were killed.

While Bangladesh’s relationship India has deteriorated since the fall of Hasina, who has been in self-exile in New Delhi, the period of diplomatic strain is expected to ease when the new government takes office.

“Whoever comes to power in Bangladesh, due to domestic pressure in the country, relationships with India need a resetting,” Humayun Kabir, former ambassador to the US, told Arab News.

“It’s anticipated that India will also engage with the new government, but they will protect their interests, and we also have to do the same. It’s most likely that the India-Bangladesh relationship will be normalized under the new, elected, government.”

Since 2024, India has suspended key transshipment access that allowed Bangladeshi exports to go via Indian ports and airports. It also put on hold most normal visa services for Bangladeshis, who were among its largest groups of medical tourists.

From Hasina’s heavy pro-India orientation, the interim government has tried to rebalance Bangladesh’s foreign policy toward the two other key regional players — China and Pakistan — who at the same time are India’s main rivals. 

If New Delhi regains its importance, it should not deal a blow to the newly expanded relations with Pakistan, with whom Bangladesh has recently increased exchanges, especially economic, and last month resumed direct flights — after a 14-year gap.

Since the relations have been expanded under the caretaker government, Prof. Delwar Hossain from the International Relations Department at Dhaka University forecast that they would only further improve, no matter who comes to power, and there is no likelihood of a sudden change.

“For Pakistan, any political coalition — whether BNP or Jamaat — will be positive. The BNP has a long history of having good relations with Pakistan during their rule ... Jamaat also has a strong and very positive influence in Pakistan,” he said.

“For Pakistan, the new regime or new government is not the issue. The issue is what the (India) policy of the new government would be and to what extent it would actually support Pakistan’s view.”

Both the BNP and Jamaat have repeatedly said they wanted friendly relations with India, and Hossain expected that they would, at the same time, continue the balanced approach introduced by the caretaker administration.

“India is a reality as a neighbor. At the same time, India is also showing interest in mending relations or adopting a more cooperative approach after the vote, with the government that will be elected ... I think there will be pragmatism from both sides,” he said.

“I don’t see there is a long-term threat to Bangladesh-India relations ... When China and Pakistan were trying to create a trilateral cooperative system or some kind of coalition — China, Bangladesh and Pakistan — we have seen that Bangladesh opted out. It seems that Bangladesh is going to continue its policy of maintaining a balance among these great powers.”

Bangladesh’s relations with China have not changed since the ouster of Hasina, whose government signed several economic agreements with Beijing. Yunus’s administration has continued this cooperation, and China was among the very few countries he officially visited during his term.

During the visit, he secured about $2.1 billion in Chinese investments, loans and grants, including funding for infrastructure like Mongla Port and a special economic zone in Chattogram — Bangladesh’s largest port. China has also eased visa rules for Bangladeshi businesspeople, medical travelers and tourists.

According to Munshi Faiz Ahmed, Bangladesh’s former ambassador to Beijing, China’s importance for Bangladesh cannot be substituted by any other country, especially as over the past few years it has emerged not only as its key investor, but also the largest trade partner.

In the fiscal year 2024-25, Bangladesh’s trade with China was over $21.3 billion, according to National Board of Revenue data. With India, it was about $11.5 billion.

The trade — especially import — dependence on Beijing started long before the regime change. In terms of trade volume, China overtook India already in 2018.

“Even when people thought that we had very close relations with India, our relations with China continued to grow in terms of trade and commerce ... Our trade with China has surpassed India’s, and China is a much bigger investor in Bangladesh’s development projects,” Ahmed said.

“Bangladesh will continue to cooperate with China for a long time to come because what China can provide, no other country can.”