An aide to Gov. Cuomo remained hospitalized in critical condition Tuesday, a day after being caught in the crossfire between two gangs in Brooklyn in the festivities leading up to the West Indian Day Parade.
A $12,500 reward for information in the shooting of Carey Gabay, a first deputy general counsel at the Empire State Development Corporation, was posted Tuesday morning as the Harvard-educated lawyer fights for his life in a Kings County Hospital bed.
The NYPD Wednesday released a sketch of a man wanted for questioning in the shooting. Witnesses at the scene told police the man was at the scene and described him as 19 or 20 years old, wearing a white T-shirt, black pants and a Jamaican flag around his neck.
Police called Gabay an unintended victim of an exchange of more than two dozen shots from up to three guns at 3:40 a.m. Monday near the parade route. Investigators were still searching for the shooters on Tuesday.
In a statement, Gabay's family said he was in a coma "surrounded by his loved ones."
"Our family is thankful for the outpouring of prayers that we've received in the aftermath of this senseless violence," the family said. "Carey has always been an inspiration to all of us and he continues to inspire us with his fight for survival."
Cuomo called the 43-year-old Harvard-educated lawyer "an outstanding public servant" who joined his administration in 2011.
"He's not doing well," Cuomo said Tuesday during a visit to Puerto Rico to discuss ways New York could help the U.S. territory's economic crisis.
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton told reporters the gangs believed to be involved are well-known to police.
"I'm very confident that we will solve that crime," Bratton said.
West Indian Day Parade 2015
The shooting was one of several outbursts of violence in the neighborhoods surrounding the parade. A 24-year-old man was fatally stabbed near Grand Army Plaza.
There have been no arrests in the shooting or stabbing.
Bloodshed before or after the West Indian Day celebration has become a sadly familiar part of the parade routine. Last year, a recent parolee opened fire into a crowd of revelers, killing one man and wounding several others. And in 2013, a 1-year-old boy sitting in his stroller was killed by a bullet meant for his father.
Asked about the future of the parade, Bratton said Tuesday, "The political leadership, the community leadership, the communities themselves want that celebration. They've made that quite clear. ... So we will work to the best of our ability to deal with the elements in that community that engage in that violence."
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Crime Stopper at 800-577-TIPS.
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