A baby shower held past midnight at the Volume Seventeen event space in Richmond Hill, Queens, New York, took a tragic turn in the early hours of Saturday, April 4, 2024, when shots were fired, resulting in one fatality and three injuries, as per the New York Police Department (NYPD).
Police were alerted to the incident at 1:30 a.m. at the venue situated at 108-11 Atlantic Avenue. They discovered 24-year-old Jefari Dobie, a resident of Brooklyn, critically injured. Despite attempts to assist him, Dobie was declared dead upon arrival at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center.
Three other men fell victim to the shooting: a 45-year-old man with a gunshot wound in his left leg, a 26-year-old man shot in the right arm, and a 43-year-old man who sustained two gunshot wounds to his right arm and one to his left leg. All three victims were reported to be in stable condition at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Queens, and Jamaica Hospital.
Residents reported hearing multiple gunshots shortly before 1:30 a.m. “I heard pop, pop, and thought it was a firecracker,” said Wasir Rasul, a local resident who had just returned from a night shift at JFK Airport. “I went back inside to avoid getting shot.”
Security footage from the scene showed guests rapidly vacating the premises as around a dozen shots rang out. A separate camera caught a white sedan quickly leaving the scene down Atlantic Avenue after the shooting. The venue’s windows and doors were marked with bullet holes, and the interior was strewn with upturned furniture and baby shower decorations.
The NYPD has yet to make any arrests in connection to the incident, and the investigation is ongoing. The police are also seeking to determine the motives behind the attack.
Local residents expressed their unease with Volume Seventeen, claiming it has been a source of disturbances since it opened two years prior. “There’s nothing new about it. Every weekend, it’s the same going on,” stated Wasir Rasul. His wife, Nadia Rasul, added, “Seventeen years I’m living here. Never see this.”
Mike Sullivan, a parent whose children attend a dance studio located next to the venue, was relieved that the studio was closed at the time of the incident. “It was a little bit scary, and I thank God this studio was closed at that time,” Sullivan relayed to CBS New York. He also mentioned a possible community petition to close the problematic event venue.
Additionally, the NYPD responded to two other shootings that occurred within the same 45-minute timeframe.
Around 1:40 a.m., merely 15 minutes after the Richmond Hill shooting, a 25-year-old man was shot in the head outside 199-23 Linden Blvd. in Jamaica, Queens. He was rushed to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in a critical state.
Shortly after 1 a.m., in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, two men were shot at 15 Albany Ave. A 47-year-old was injured in the stomach, while a 34-year-old was shot in the right elbow. The authorities are searching for two suspects who escaped on bicycles towards Fulton Street.
No arrests have been made related to any of the mentioned incidents, and the NYPD hasn’t confirmed if the shootings are interconnected.
Parents and community members expressed their despair over the violent incidents that have disrupted the Richmond Hill area. “To come and just witness a scene of something like this happening is very devastating in our community,” a parent lamented. “We pay some of the highest taxes in the nation, but living in an unsafe environment isn’t what we want our kids to experience.”
