NEW YORK — A gunman killed a rival after a fight at a Bronx baby shower — only to be fatally shot with his own gun by one of the victim’s friends, police said Sunday.
The two men who wound up dead were inside a party on Webster Avenue and E. 198th Street in Bedford Park when they got into a fight Saturday night, police said.
Their fight spilled out onto the street and one of the men, age 24, shot his 28-year-old rival in the face about 11 p.m., cops said. The shot man’s outraged friends then jumped the gunman, authorities said.
One of those friends, also 28, managed to get the gunman’s weapon away from him and shot him in the chest with it, according to police.
“This s--- sounds like a whole movie,” said a worker at a nearby deli who saw the violence unfold. “This is a whole movie scene. This happens every other day. It’s gun fights every time, man.”
The deli worker, who gave his first name, Prince, said the men were attending a baby shower in a second-floor event space above his store.
“They were definitely drunk off their a--, drunk basically and started arguing,” he said. “When you’re drunk with a firearm you don’t think straight.”
Medics rushed both shot men to St. Barnabas Hospital but neither survived. Police have not yet released either man’s name.
The friend who avenged his buddy’s death was taken into custody and charges against him were pending, police said.
Police on Sunday released a surveillance images of another man involved in the fight and are asking anyone with information on him to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.
Prince said he’s used to hearing about violence a couple of blocks away from his store but not right outside.
“I’m surprised it happened right here,” he said. “But it could’ve happened everywhere as long as there is a party. Alcohol, people aren’t in their right mind.”
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