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Fatal Shooting At Crown Heights Gambling Den Allegedly Sparked By Cheating Claims
By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 14, 2019
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By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 14, 2019
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Police identified the four men who were killed in an apparent shootout at an illegal gambling den in Crown Heights, as reports emerged that the violence was sparked by accusations of cheating.
Terence Bishop, 36; Chester Goode, 37; John Thomas, 32; and Dominick Wimbush, 47, all residents of Brooklyn, died on Saturday morning inside the Triple A Aces Private and Social Rental Place at 74 Utica Avenue. Bishop's brother, Eddie Baldwin, told the Daily News, "I woke up and couldn’t believe it. The detectives told us a guy at the club was cheated and wanted his money back.”
According to the NY Times, "Witnesses told the police that Mr. Goode... pulled a gun inside the club just before 7 a.m. on Saturday and told everyone to get down, the official said. He fired a warning shot into the ceiling, and then turned the gun on fellow gamblers packed into the small space. Before he was shot by a bouncer standing guard, Mr. Goode had killed two of his own acquaintances, the official said."
The bouncer was Wimbush, who had, the Post reports, "stepped in after Goode fired shots into the ceiling and ordered everyone down on the floor." Three other people, two men and a woman, were also shot and treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
Two guns were recovered from the scene, a 9mm and a revolver.
NYPD officials said on Saturday that it appeared that those inside the club were playing cards and dice, and the Post says they were playing cee-lo ("the game typically features rolling three six-sided dice, with the winner coming up with a preferred combinations of numbers that are determined beforehand").
The building's owner, Samuel Revells, said to the Post that he was unaware of gambling gatherings, "I thought they were having birthday parties, things for funerals in there. In the two years since I leased it we haven’t had any problems, no police."
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams will be at a vigil on Monday night, to, a press release explained, "call attention to the pervasive double-standard around mass shooting incidents, where shootings in urban areas are treated with less urgency than those in suburban and rural communities, despite accounting for most of the gun violence in the U.S. He will also highlight the role that handguns play in driving the gun violence crisis in the country."
"We must be vigilant in identifying illegal social clubs and addressing the over-proliferation of handguns in our country," he told WNYC on Sunday. "We sometimes put the real crisis of handguns to the back burners and just deal with the AK-47's and assault rifles, when in fact the real crisis that we're facing lies in the handgun."
In August, 12 people were shot during an Old Timers event in Brownsville. Adams added, "We find far too often when mass shootings occur in communities of color or impoverished areas we are more reluctant to classify it as such. Four or more people that are shot should be treated as such so that the necessary resources can go into the community."
The vigil, which will also be attended by clergy leaders, anti-gun violence, and others, is at 7:30 p.m., by Utica Avenue and Michael Griffith Street.
Hours after the shooting, NYPD Chief of Patrol Rodney Harrison told reporters on Saturday that there hadn't been complaints about the club, but the Times reported that neighbors had in fact complained: "The police had been there just once in response to a call for aid, but no crime was reported at the time, [an anonymous police] official said."
Harrison said to the Times, "I need the community to work with us and stop these operations, because if you don’t, unfortunate things may happen."
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Crown Heights
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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