Crime & Safety

UPDATE: Flatiron Nightclub Shooting Suspect in Custody

The shooter killed Walikque Grace Faussett, a young woman standing outside the Motivo nightclub in Manhattan, and injured two more.

UPDATE, Tuesday, 12:35 p.m.: One man is reportedly in police custody and another is being questioned for the murder of 24-year-old Walikque Grace Faussett. Read the full story at NBC4.

UPDATE, Monday, 1:45 p.m.: The woman who died has been identified by the Daily News as Walikque Faussett, a young mother from the Bronx. “I will search for him myself because he should pay,” her father told the Daily News of his daughter’s killer, a suspected gangster who’s still on the run. The two other women injured in the shooting have reportedly been identified as 30-year-old Deborah Raji of Brooklyn and 25-year-old Lauren Renee Rondat. Read the full story at the Daily News.

Original story below.

One of three women shot outside the Motivo nightclub in Manhattan’s Flatiron district early Monday morning has died from her injuries, according to the NYPD.

The upscale nightclub, located on Broadway near East 21st Street, was hosting a party Sunday night in which all attendees were asked to wear black. ”Ladies keep it grown and sexy & guys dress to impress!!” the club wrote on Facebook.

The first victim, a 24-year-old woman, died at Bellevue Hospital after being shot in the back around 4 a.m., police said.

The second victim, a 30-year-old woman, was hit in the shoulder, and the third victim, a 25-year-old woman, was hit in the hip and foot. They are both listed in stable condition.

CBS2 collected the following witness accounts.

“The guy who started the fight, he was outside,” a man who works next door to the club told WCBS 880’s Sean Adams. “The other guy was inside because the other guy didn’t want to fight. But the one that was outside, he tried to get inside the club again, but the security did not let him go inside.”

“I heard about six or seven loud, what seemed to be — I was in disbelief, but what seemed to be gunshots at the time,” a witness told CBS2’s Ilana Gold. “You could hear the yelling and screaming, but I was kind of hoping it was a fight for a minute, then reality kind of hit you and see people on the ground. It was kind of mayhem.”

The New York Daily News, too, reported that its sources said “there was an argument inside the club as it was getting ready to close for the night and that the suspect left, got a gun from his vehicle and opened fire as patrons were exiting.”

Police were reportedly searching for a black BMW that fled eastbound on East 20th Street after the shooting.

However, by late Monday morning, no arrests had been made. “The investigation is ongoing,” police said.


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