Queens Mansion Party Ends With Two People Shot, Suspects On The Loose
A late night party at a Queens area party ended up with two men wounded from gunshot wounds on Sunday morning at a rented mansion on 28th Avenue in Bayside.
New York Daily News reports that Tyree Walker, 27, and Shaun Lee, 23, attended a party on Saturday night at a rented Queens mansion when things took a turn for the worst a little after midnight on Sunday morning. Joel, the man who rented the mansion via Airbnb, told police that it was intended to be a simple party to celebrate life.
“We were just celebrating a life and you bring a gun to a party. My friends got f—ing shot. I’m just praying they’re all right.”
According to authorities, both Lee and Walker were leaving the party when someone shot each in the stomach. According to a witness whose name was undisclosed, someone at the party threw up a gang sign shortly before loud gun shots went off.
“You hear a bop and everyone says, ‘Oh s–t’ and everyone starts running. hey were fistfighting… I heard the shot and I ran.”
One of the party guests, Frankie Marchione, 20, stated that the festivities mostly took place in the basement where alcohol was served, although people 21 and older were allowed upstairs to the main party. Guests were required to pay either $15 or $25 to enter the party, and according to Marchione, things escalated quickly, even though the host hired security guards for the event.
“It was too loud and everyone was too drunk. Everybody showed up and something was bound to happen. People were trampling over me. Everyone was terrified. It was just like a riot. I saw one person on the floor bleeding. We didn’t know it would be this crazy.”
WABC-TV reports that Marchione, of Fresh Meadows, found out about the party on Instagram, as did numerous other people. A lot of guests were paired in different groups and didn’t know each other.
Neighbor Lori Somekh, 56, said that groups of people overran the neighborhood, trampling over each other, and making noise.
“You give kids alcohol and a gun and bad things happen. I always think weird things happen in the house. I’m always creeped out.”
The following morning, piles of plastic cups and bottles of Hennessey were scattered around the mansion’s front yard.
Lee was rushed to the North Shore University Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. Walker, however, was taken to Queens’ New York Hospital for immediate surgery, and is listed in critical condition.
The shootings came at an inopportune for authorities. Several other shootings in the area took place within a six-hour time span of the party shootings, including a 42-year-old woman who was shot in the face by an angry husband. She was taken to Brookdale University Hospital and is expected to make it. Police are still searching for her husband.
In another incident, a man, 48, was shot in the abdomen by his wife, 50, during what authorities said was a domestic dispute. He is also expected to survive.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Airbnb released a public statement after learning two partygoers were shot in one of the company’s rented houses.
“Our thoughts are with the victims and their families. We are in close contact with the host to provide her with our support. We have reached out to the NYPD and offered to assist them in any way possible. In the past few years, millions of Airbnb guests have visited NYC and situations of this type are extremely rare.”
Anyone with any information on the Queens shootings should contact authorities immediately. So far, no arrests have been made.
[Photos By Spencer Platt Getty/Images & Scott Olson/Getty Images]
