NEW YORK (AP) – Shots rang out inside a concert venue in New York City where hip-hop artist T.I. was getting ready to perform, leaving one person dead, three others wounded and concertgoers scrambling for the nearest exits, police said.
The shooting happened around 10:15 p.m. Wednesday in a third-floor green room area at Irving Plaza, near Manhattan’s Union Square. It was not immediately known who had access to that area.
Witnesses described a frantic, frightening scene.
Live Hoffman, 19, was in the balcony VIP area to the left of the stage when the shooting happened. She said there had been some kind of argument between two groups of people before the shooting. A girl she had been talking to was one of the victims.
“The girl next to me was shot point blank, and men picked her up and carried her out,” Hoffman told The Associated Press, still shaken by the events that unfolded right in front of her. “For two to three minutes we still heard firing, still heard shots, we were clutching each other making sure no one was getting hit.”