A Bloody Few Hours In Chelsea: Multiple People Shot, 1 Dead, NYPD Says

CHELSEA, NY — Shots rang out in Chelsea Saturday night amid a bloody collection of hours in Lower Manhattan that left three people injured and one person dead, according to police.

The violence started a little after 10 p.m., when three people were shot in front of the art gallery Lavan541 near 11th Avenue, police said.

Queens resident Rasithamar Grant, 42, was shot multiple times throughout the body and later died at Bellevue Hospital, police said.

A 32-year-old woman was also shot in the left leg, and a 37-year-old man was hit multiple times in both legs, police said. Both were taken to local hospitals in stable condition, police said.

It is still unclear what led to the shooting, but the gunman fled in a car and there have been no arrests, police said.

“It’s a bit of a shock, but I guess this is what New York is like today,” a visitor from Newcastle who was nearby when the shooting happened told the New York Post. “Everyone here has a gun. It’s crazy. The police don’t even have guns where we’re from. Nobody does.”

It wasn't the only shooting to happen in Chelsea over the weekend.

A few hours later about 3:30 a.m., a 32-year-old man was shot just a couple blocks away outside of 101 W. 23rd St., police said.

Police sources told the New York Post that the victim — whose condition remains undisclosed — was identified as 32-year-old Brandon Grant. The sources added to the New York Post that an unknown man walked up to him and shot him in the chest.

Citywide crime was up in October by 5.9 percent when compared to the same month last year, according to NYPD stats. Those jumps were seen in every major crime category besides murder and felony assault.

In Chelsea, though, the number of murders from this year to last has gone up from one to four, according to police data from the 10th Precinct.

Overall, rape and domestic crime are the only two of 15 types of crime tracked in Chelsea's 10th Precinct to have gone down in the neighborhood in 2022 compared to 2021 (some have remained exactly the same).

In the case of shootings, there have been three shooting victims so far in 2022 within the 10th Precinct, compared to two from last year, data shows.

In Chelsea, a 71-year-old man died at the beginning of November after getting punched in the face by a teenager between West 24th and 25th street in September, police said.

The attack occurred just three blocks away from the street where celebrity vocal coach Barbara Maier Gustern, 87, was shoved to her death in March.