Six people were shot along the West Indian American Day Parade route in Brooklyn on Monday evening in a bloody end to the annual celebration that drew hundreds of thousands of revelers and candidates in the crowded mayoral race.
The roughly two-mile route for the official, annual parade kicked off at 11 a.m. on Utica Avenue near Lincoln Terrace Park, with festival goers traveling westward toward the Brooklyn Museum, as a beefed-up deployment of NYPD officers had initially kept the peace.
“I like it like this. The cops are around. They are with the people,” said Harold Harvey, 71, a Grenada native who grew up in Trinidad and Tobago and has lived in Crown Heights since 1979.
“Their heavy presence will keep away the people who come to make trouble,” said Harvey, noting he was thankful for the increased security presence as he watched bands pass by on Empire Boulevard…