A gunman opened fire outside a Canarsie bar just after 5 a.m. Sunday, wounding four adults and fleeing on foot, as detectives spent Monday reviewing surveillance video and trying to determine who fired the shots and why.
The shooting outside Richard’s Restaurant and Bar, also identified in some local reports as Richard’s Hall and Lounge, left all four victims alive and in stable condition. Even so, the case quickly became one of Brooklyn’s most closely watched weekend gun investigations because it happened in a crowded public setting, before dawn, with multiple bystanders nearby and no arrest announced a day later. Investigators have released only a narrow public account so far: a man approached a group outside the business on Avenue L, words were exchanged, shots followed and the shooter ran off down East 94th Street.
The timeline that police and local stations have pieced together begins with a 911 call at 5:06 a.m. Sunday at the bar near Avenue L and East 94th Street. Video reviewed by reporters shows a man walk up to a cluster of people standing outside the entrance. After a short exchange, and about 17 seconds after he first reached the group, the man pulled a gun and fired toward the people near the doorway. Some people scattered across the street. Others rushed back inside the business. When officers arrived, they found a 43-year-old woman shot in the leg, a 44-year-old man shot in the leg and another 44-year-old man shot in the arm. Investigators later determined that a 38-year-old woman had also been shot in the leg. Emergency crews took the 43-year-old woman to Kings County Hospital. The two men were taken to Brookdale Hospital Medical Center, and the 38-year-old woman made her own way to Brookdale.
What officials have confirmed after that is limited but important. Police have not publicly identified any of the four victims. They have not said whether the group outside the bar was specifically targeted, whether the argument started inside the business or outside on the sidewalk, or whether the shooter knew any of the people who were hit. Detectives also have not said whether they recovered the weapon, whether a getaway vehicle was involved or whether a second person may have helped the gunman leave the area. Physical signs at the scene suggested the burst of violence was concentrated around the front of the bar. Local coverage showed bullet damage in a window near the entrance and shell casings on the street. A regular at the bar told local media that a birthday celebration had been underway before the shots were fired. That witness described one victim’s foot injury in graphic terms, though police have publicly described the wounds only as gunshot injuries to arms and legs.
The shooting landed at an awkward moment for city officials, who had been pointing to lower gun violence at the start of the year. A week earlier, Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch said New York City had recorded 83 shooting incidents and 97 shooting victims in January and February combined, the lowest totals on record for those two months. But the weekly citywide CompStat report covering March 2 through March 8 showed how quickly that message can be disrupted by a violent weekend. The report listed 18 shooting victims citywide that week, up from seven during the same week a year earlier, and 14 shooting incidents, up from seven. The 69th Precinct report put four shooting victims into a single incident for that week, compared with none in the same week last year. Year to date, the precinct had four shooting victims, compared with one at the same point in 2025. Those numbers do not, on their own, prove a trend in Canarsie, but they do place the bar shooting inside a sharper local spike than city leaders were highlighting only days earlier.
The next phase of the case is procedural and, for prosecutors, critical. Detectives are expected to keep collecting and comparing surveillance from the bar and nearby buildings, trace the shell casings through ballistics databases and re-interview people who were outside when the gunfire began. Hospital interviews can also help investigators narrow the sequence of events, especially if the victims or witnesses knew the shooter or recognized his route after he fled. If police identify and arrest a suspect, prosecutors would then decide which charges fit the evidence. Depending on what detectives establish about intent and the path of the gunfire, those charges could include attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon. As of Monday evening, though, there was no public criminal complaint, no suspect image released by police and no announced court date. Authorities also had not said whether the business itself faced any regulatory review tied to security, crowd control or operating conditions.
By sunrise Sunday, the stretch of Avenue L outside the bar had turned from a late-night hangout into a taped-off crime scene. Photos and television footage showed officers and investigators working around the sidewalk and curb while the front of the business still carried visible damage. The video that has circulated publicly adds to the unease because of how quickly the violence unfolds. The man does not appear to linger for long. He walks up, exchanges words and fires within seconds. The people nearest him do not seem to have much time to react before they run. In one account carried by local media, the regular who said a birthday gathering was taking place recalled being at the back of the bar when the shots rang out. No one from the business had publicly explained Monday what led up to the confrontation, and police had not said whether cameras inside the bar captured the moments before the shooting moved onto the street.
As of Monday night, all four victims were expected to survive, but the shooter remained unnamed and at large. The next clear milestone will be whether investigators release a suspect image, announce an arrest or disclose new evidence from surveillance footage, witness interviews and ballistics testing.
Author note: Last updated March 9, 2026.