Three Stabbed Before Violence-Plagued Brooklyn Caribbean Parade

Three men were stabbed in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood early Monday morning, just hours before the start of the West Indian American Day Parade, according to the New York Post.

Police said a 32-year-old and a 23-year-old were stabbed in the neck and a 36-year-old was stabbed in the face near Carroll Street and Utica Avenue around 5:48 a.m. All three were taken to Kings County Hospital, where the 32-year-old remained in critical condition as of writing. The other two victims were listed in stable condition. No arrests had been made.

The attack occurred just blocks from J’Ouvert, the pre-dawn Caribbean festival that traditionally opens Labor Day weekend celebrations in Crown Heights before the main parade begins.

This year’s parade features tightened security following last year’s violence, in which six people were injured across three separate shootings near the parade route — two of which remain unsolved, according to police. The NYPD has reportedly mounted one of its largest deployments of the year, stationing thousands of officers along Eastern Parkway and in surrounding neighborhoods, with security checkpoints and metal detectors set up along the route. Organizers have also moved up the parade’s end time to 5:30 p.m., citing the history of violence that has plagued the event in past years.

The West Indian Day Parade, one of the largest celebrations of Caribbean culture in the United States, has been marred by deadly violence repeatedly in recent years. A gunman fatally shot 25-year-old Denzel Chan along the route in 2024, and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) aide Carey Gabay was killed by a stray bullet during J’Ouvert festivities in 2015. Monday’s stabbings mark the earliest repeated violence connected to this year’s festivities, with the parade itself not scheduled to begin until 11 a.m.