Four adults were wounded and a gunman remained at large Monday after a burst of early-morning gunfire outside a bar in Canarsie sent patrons scrambling back inside and set off another weekend shooting investigation in Brooklyn.
The shooting happened outside Richard’s Restaurant and Bar, also described in some reports as Richards Hall and Lounge, on Avenue L in the 69th Precinct. Police said the victims, two women and two men ages 38 to 44, were struck in their arms or legs and were expected to survive. By Monday afternoon, detectives had not announced an arrest or a motive, leaving basic questions unresolved about who opened fire, whether the victims were targeted and what led to the confrontation outside the business.
Authorities said the first emergency call came in at 5:06 a.m. Sunday. Television footage and follow-up reporting showed a man walk up to a group gathered outside the lounge on Avenue L near East 94th Street. Words were exchanged, and about 17 seconds later the man pulled a gun and fired toward the group. Some witnesses on the sidewalk moved away as shots rang out. Others ran back toward the entrance. Police said the shooter fled on foot down East 94th Street. The scene, which had been a late-night crowd outside a neighborhood bar, quickly turned into an evidence search. Detectives and crime-scene technicians spent much of Sunday morning around the entrance and sidewalk, trying to map the path of the gunfire and identify everyone who may have seen what happened before the shooting began.
The injuries police described were serious enough to send all four victims to hospitals, but not life-threatening. Officers found a 43-year-old woman with a gunshot wound to the leg, a 44-year-old man with a gunshot wound to the leg and another 44-year-old man with a wound to the arm, according to law enforcement accounts carried by local media. Investigators later learned that a 38-year-old woman also had been shot in the leg. Emergency crews took the 43-year-old woman to Kings County Hospital, while the two men were taken to Brookdale Hospital Medical Center. The 38-year-old woman made her own way to Brookdale, according to Brooklyn Paper. All four were listed in stable condition. Police have not publicly identified the victims, and no hospital update released Monday suggested that any of the injuries had become life-threatening after the initial response.
Public evidence released so far paints a narrow picture of the shooting itself, but leaves the cause unclear. Local footage from the block showed bullet damage in the window near the bar and police tape marking off part of the sidewalk and street. Brooklyn Paper reported that shell casings could be seen outside, reinforcing the account that the shooting began on the street and was aimed toward the entrance area. ABC7 reported that the gunman appeared to approach the group deliberately before firing. What remains unknown is whether the suspect knew the people he shot, whether there had been an earlier dispute inside the bar, or whether all four people struck were the intended targets. Police have not released a suspect description beyond saying the gunman fled on foot, and they have not said whether detectives recovered a weapon, identified a getaway vehicle or tied the shooting to any larger dispute in the neighborhood.
The case stands out because it came as city officials have been highlighting lower gun violence totals at the start of the year. On March 2, the NYPD said New York City had recorded the fewest shooting incidents and shooting victims in recorded history for January and February combined, with 83 shooting incidents and 97 shooting victims in those two months. But the department’s CompStat report for the week that ended March 8 showed 18 shooting victims citywide, up from seven during the same week a year earlier, and 14 shooting incidents, up from seven in that week last year. Those figures do not establish a trend on their own, but they show how a weekend cluster of shootings can quickly interrupt the city’s broader narrative of improvement. For Canarsie residents, the more immediate reality was simpler: a crowded bar block became a crime scene before sunrise, and four people were taken away wounded from a business that had been serving late-night patrons only moments earlier.
The next steps in the case are procedural but important. Detectives are expected to keep reviewing surveillance video from the bar and nearby buildings, compare shell casings through ballistics databases and re-interview witnesses who were outside when the shots were fired. If investigators identify a suspect, prosecutors would then decide what charges fit the evidence, which could range from attempted murder to assault and weapons counts. For now, no criminal complaint had been announced publicly. Police also had not said whether the bar itself could face any regulatory review tied to security, crowd control or operating conditions, and there was no public indication Monday of any enforcement action against the business. In the absence of an arrest, the case remains at the stage where detectives are still trying to build a basic timeline that can hold up in court.
The scene described by witnesses and local reporters suggests a fast, chaotic burst of violence rather than a long-running exchange of gunfire. News 12 reported that surveillance video showed the shots being fired outside the lounge, while CBS New York said the search for the gunman was still active a day later. One regular at the bar told local media that a birthday celebration had been underway before the shooting, but police have not publicly confirmed that detail. What officials have confirmed is narrower and more important to the case: four adults were hit, all survived, the shooter got away and detectives were left to sort through a few seconds of video, a handful of injured people and a street scene that had already started to clear by the time officers arrived.
As of Monday evening, no arrest had been announced, no motive had been released and the gunman remained unidentified. The next milestone will be whether police produce a suspect image, make an arrest or disclose new evidence from surveillance footage and witness interviews in the days ahead.
Author note: Last updated March 9, 2026.