A 44-year-old man was shot in the head and killed inside American Best Wings & Pizza on Rockaway Avenue in Brownsville early Sunday, while a second man, 39, was wounded in the leg during the same burst of gunfire. Police say no arrests have been made, and the investigation remains ongoing.
Officers responded to a 911 call reporting an assault in progress at roughly midnight Sunday at the restaurant, located at 842 Rockaway Ave., according to News 12 Brooklyn. When officers arrived, they found the 44-year-old victim with a gunshot wound to the head and the 39-year-old victim with a gunshot wound to his right leg. Both men were rushed by EMS to One Brooklyn Health's Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center, where the older victim was pronounced dead. The 39-year-old was listed in stable condition, and as of Sunday morning, his identity and that of the man who died had not been released to the public.
A Trauma Hub Built for Exactly This
Brookdale's Level II Trauma Center at 1 Brookdale Plaza serves as the primary emergency-care hub for eastern Brooklyn, treating nearly 2,000 trauma patients a year, according to prior Hoodline reporting. The hospital also runs the Violence Intervention Through Advocacy and Leadership initiative, known as VITAL, a bedside program that connects shooting victims with crisis counseling and case management while they're still hospitalized, as detailed by Our Time Press. It remains unknown whether VITAL's violence interrupters have engaged with the surviving 39-year-old victim to head off any retaliatory violence.
The shooting falls within the jurisdiction of the NYPD's 73rd Precinct, headquartered at 1470 East New York Avenue and commanded by Deputy Inspector Odelle D. Despot, whose command covers both Brownsville and Ocean Hill. Rockaway Avenue itself is a primary commercial corridor where precinct Quality-of-Life teams deploy foot patrols, though investigators have repeatedly noted that the avenue also functions as a getaway route for fleeing suspects in local violent incidents.
Part of a Longer, Contradictory Pattern
The double shooting lands against a backdrop of historic citywide progress on gun violence. Brooklyn finished 2025 with the fewest homicides and shootings in recorded history, with borough homicides down 24% and shooting incidents down 15% year-over-year, per the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office. Citywide, the trend has continued: the NYPD reported just 381 shooting incidents through July 2026, the lowest seven-month total in modern city history, according to Police1.
Yet Brownsville's own numbers tell a heavier story over a longer stretch of time. Between 2006 and early 2026, the 73rd Precinct logged 1,302 shooting incidents, placing it second citywide for overall gun violence across that two-decade span, trailing only the neighboring 75th Precinct in East New York. It's a pattern Hoodline has tracked repeatedly this year, including in a recent report on a masked e-bike shooting and another on a violent slashing along the same commercial strip.
City Program Targets the Same Blocks
In December 2024, the New York City Mayor's Office launched the “Every Block Counts” pilot program specifically targeting high-crime blocks within the 73rd Precinct, pairing extra police patrols with city social services and community violence interrupters from groups like the Brownsville Safety Alliance, according to NYC.gov. The initiative pairs law enforcement with what officials call “credible messengers” meant to defuse street disputes before they turn violent.
Whether Sunday's shooting began as an argument inside the restaurant or was a targeted ambush has not been determined, and it's unclear whether security cameras inside or around American Best Wings & Pizza captured footage of the gunman. Anyone with information is asked to contact NYPD Crime Stoppers, which offers anonymous cash rewards of up to $3,500 for tips leading to an arrest and indictment in violent felony cases, either by calling 1-800-577-TIPS or submitting a tip online.
