Two unidentified people opened fire in front of 309 Macdougal Street in Brooklyn's Ocean Hill neighborhood at around 5:40 a.m. on August 15, then fled in an unknown direction, according to police. No injuries were reported, but the shooters remain at large weeks later as investigators continue to search for them.
The alert, shared by NYPD Crime Stoppers, describes the two individuals only as unidentified, with no further description of their appearance or the circumstances that led to the gunfire. The address sits within the 73rd Precinct, which patrols both Ocean Hill and Brownsville and is commanded by Deputy Inspector Odelle D. Despot out of its headquarters on East New York Avenue, per the NYPD.
309 Macdougal Street is part of the Ocean Hill Houses, a NYCHA residential complex that underwent major multi-building preservation financing in May 2025, according to public records from the New York City Housing Development Corporation. It's not the first time this stretch of Macdougal Street has drawn a police wanted alert for gunfire — the 73rd Precinct issued a similar reckless endangerment notice in June 2021 tied to an illegal shooting near the same address on May 11 of that year, per the NYPD.
What Charges Could the Shooters Face
Under New York Penal Law § 120.25, prosecutors could pursue Reckless Endangerment in the First Degree, a Class D felony carrying up to seven years in prison, if the conduct is found to have recklessly created a grave risk of death with depraved indifference to human life, according to FindLaw. If that threshold isn't met, the case could instead fall under Penal Law § 120.20, Reckless Endangerment in the Second Degree, a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to 364 days in jail, as Hoodline has previously reported. It remains unknown which charge investigators believe applies here, or whether the two shooters were targeting a specific person or engaged in a dispute with each other.
A Precinct With a Complicated Recent History
The 73rd Precinct has seen dramatic swings in gun violence over the past several years. Homicides in the precinct fell 67 percent and shooting incidents dropped 30 percent during 2023, part of a broader decline across Brooklyn North, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office. That progress followed a December 2022 investigation by the NYPD and the Brooklyn DA's office that led to the indictment of 32 alleged gang members tied to 17 shootings and 24 firearm-related crimes across Ocean Hill and Brownsville.
But the gains haven't been steady. By June 2024, shooting victims in the precinct had temporarily doubled compared to the same period the year before, prompting community groups like Brownsville In Violence Out to deploy crisis interrupters, per FOX 5 New York. More recently, official NYPD CompStat figures for the week ending July 26, 2026 ranked the 73rd Precinct 21st out of 77 citywide commands for total year-to-date major crime complaints, logging 93 complaints in that single week alone.
Recent Gunfire Cases Still Open in the Precinct
The Macdougal Street shooting adds to a string of unresolved violent incidents across the 73rd Precinct in recent weeks. Hoodline reported a Brownsville gunman still at large after firing at a man outside another NYCHA property, while a separate midnight shooting inside a Brownsville pizza shop left one person dead and another wounded. A teenager was also shot dead in nearby East New York the same night two girls were stabbed blocks away, and a manhunt remains open for an attacker who slashed a man's eye and ear in Ocean Hill.
Anyone with information about the two individuals involved in the August 15 shooting is asked to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or send a direct message to @NYPDTips. Tips can also be submitted anonymously, and a cash reward of up to $3,500 is available for information leading to an arrest and indictment, with tipster identities protected through an untraceable ID number system supported by the New York City Police Foundation.
