New York
Man charged for role in bar shoot-out that killed 3; video shows chaotic scene
NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors have charged a man they say played a role in a gang-related shooting that broke out in a crowded Brooklyn bar this summer, leaving three dead and 10 others injured.
For the first time Wednesday, prosecutors also released security camera footage of the chaotic gunfight, which unfolded Aug. 17 inside the Taste of City Lounge in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn.
The video showed patrons scrambling for cover as bullets ricocheted across the densely-packed club, with at least 40 shots fired from five guns, prosecutors said.
Among the shooters was Elijah Roy, a 25-year-old gang member who arrived at the club with several associates, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday.
At around 3:30 a.m., one of those associates, Marvin St. Louis, 19, began taunting a rival gang member, Jamel Childs, 35, authorities said. The confrontation quickly escalated with, authorities said, St. Louis shooting at Childs, who returned fire. Both St. Louis and Childs were killed in the shoot-out, as was another man, 27-year-old Amadou Diallo, who is believed to have been a bystander.
After ducking under a table, Roy fired two shots, according to prosecutors. It was unclear if those shots hit anyone. He is accused of violent assault in aid of racketeering and illegal possession of ammunition.
Mehdi Essmidi, an attorney for Roy, did not respond to a voice message.
Prosecutors described Roy and St. Louis as members of the 5-9 Brims, a subset of the Bloods. They said Childs was part of a rival gang, the Folk Nation Gangster Disciples.
Roy was arrested last week in North Carolina, carrying $7,000 in cash, according to the criminal complaint. He was arraigned Wednesday afternoon and ordered held without bail.
New York City has seen a year of record-low gun violence, with the fewest number of shootings and shooting victims recorded across the city during the first nine months of 2025, according to police.
At a vigil held for the victims in August, Mayor Eric Adams said that “what happened in the Taste of the City is not a reflection of our city.”
Florida
Prosecutors won’t pursue battery charge against Dolphins’ Ryan Crow, who remains on leave from team
Prosecutors in Broward County, Florida, will not pursue charges against Miami Dolphins assistant coach Ryan Crow, who was arrested and accused of battering his girlfriend in August.
Crow, 37, has been on indefinite leave from his role as outside linebackers coach for the Dolphins after being arrested on Aug. 28 on one count of misdemeanor domestic battery after an argument with his live-in girlfriend, during which he allegedly shoved her, tried to slap her and appeared to lift her off the ground, according to an arrest report and statements from witnesses contained in a prosecutor’s memo.
In a closeout memo Wednesday, prosecutors wrote that the victim was uncooperative in the case and was adamant about not wanting charges filed. Prosecutors added they could not pursue the case without cooperation from the victim, because neither the witness accounts nor video surveillance clearly established that a battery occurred.
“Although the witnesses interpreted the victim’s need for help based upon their observations, the victim never said anything to them,” the memo said, “and these facts would not meet the legal threshold required for any of the witnesses to be permitted to testify in a court of law as to the victim’s state of mind.”
The altercation stemmed from an argument between the pair after returning home from a Dolphins’ work party. When the woman spoke with police that night, she told them that Crow had pushed her down stairs. Crow denied touching her when he spoke to police, stating their argument was only verbal, the memo said.
Police also spoke with three witnesses and reviewed police reports, body-camera videos and video surveillance from the building.
“They found that there’s no reasonable likelihood of conviction,” Crow’s lawyer, Michael Gottlieb, told The Associated Press. “I’m glad that coach Crow is being exonerated and that the charges are being dropped.”
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Wednesday that there would be no immediate change in Crow’s status with the team.
“We won’t even bridge that until the league is done with their process,” McDaniel said.
Crow is in his second season coaching Miami’s outside linebackers. He held the same position with the Tennessee Titans the three prior years. Defensive assistant Sean Ryan has led the unit in his place.
Hawaii
Real estate investor denies improper use of Shohei Ohtani’s likeness in lawsuit
HONOLULU (AP) — Lawyers for a Hawaii real estate investor and broker who sued Shohei Ohtani and his agent denied any improper use of the star’s likeness for a development project and alleged the agent was trying to deflect blame for cost overruns at the player’s home.
Ohtani and Nez Balelo of CAA Baseball were sued Aug. 8 in Hawaii Circuit Court for the First Circuit by developer Kevin J. Hayes Sr., real estate broker Tomoko Matsumoto, West Point Investment Corp. and Hapuna Estates Property Owners. They accused Ohtani and Balelo of “abuse of power” that allegedly resulted in tortious interference and unjust enrichment impacting a $240 million luxury housing development on the Big Island’s coveted Hapuna Coast.
Hayes and Matsumoto had been dropped from the development deal by Kingsbarn Realty Capital, the joint venture’s majority owner.
The amended complaint filed Tuesday added Creative Artists Agency and CAA Sports as defendants.
“Balelo and CAA sought to deflect blame by scapegoating Hayes for the cost overruns on Otani’s home — overruns caused entirely by defendants’ own decisions,” the complaint said.
“The allegations as we clarified them make very clear that there was never a breach of the endorsement agreement, the video that was posted on the website promoting specifically this project was sent to Balelo and CAA and another adviser to Ohtani, Mark Daulton, and they were aware of it and never objected to it,” said Josh Schiller, a lawyer for Hayes and the suing entities.
In a motion to dismiss filed Sept. 14, attorneys for Ohtani and Balelo said “plaintiffs exploited Ohtani’s name and photograph to drum up traffic to a website that marketed plaintiffs’ own side project development.”
“This is a desperate attempt to avoid dismissal of a frivolous complaint and, as we previously said, to distract from plaintiffs’ myriad of failures and their blatant misappropriation of Shohei Ohtani’s rights,” Laura Smolowe, a lawyer for Ohtani and Balelo, said in a statement. “Nez Balelo has always prioritized Mr. Ohtani’s best interests, including protecting his name, image, and likeness from unauthorized use.”
Lawyers for Hayes and the plaintiffs claimed they kept Balelo and CAA informed.
“Before the website went live, Hayes submitted a link to the entire site — including its promotional aspects — by email to Balelo and Terry Prince, the director of legal and business Affairs at CAA Sports LLC,” the amended complaint said. “It remained online with no material changes for 14 months before Balelo suddenly objected and threatened litigation — weaponizing the issue in order to create pretext for yet another set of demands and concessions.”
“The sudden demand that Kingsbarn terminate plaintiffs was instead a retaliatory measure against Hayes for resisting the constant and improper demands of Balelo and (Ohtani),” the complaint added. “Defendants further calculated that, with plaintiffs removed, they could more easily extract financial concessions from the project and enrich themselves at plaintiffs’ expense.”
Alabama
Lawsuit filed against immigration authorities after U.S. citizen’s arrests in raids
An Alabama construction worker and U.S. citizen who says he was detained twice by immigration agents within just a few weeks has filed a lawsuit in federal court demanding an end to Trump administration workplace raids targeting industries with large immigrant workforces.
The class-action lawsuit, filed Tuesday by concrete worker Leo Garcia Venegas with the public interest law firm Institute for Justice, demands an end to what the firm calls “unconstitutional and illegal immigration enforcement tactics.”
Venegas, who was born in the U.S., lives and works in Baldwin County, Alabama, a Gulf Coast area between the cities of Mobile and Pensacola, Florida, that has seen immense population growth in the last 15 years, and which offers plenty of construction work.
The lawsuit comes just weeks after the Supreme Court lifted a judge’s restraining order that had barred immigration agents in Los Angeles from stopping people solely based on their race, language, job or location.
The court has repeatedly allowed some of the Trump administrations harshest immigration policies, while also leaving open that legal outcomes could shift as cases play out.
The Department of Homeland Security dismissed the suit as “race-baiting opportunism.”
“DHS law enforcement uses ‘reasonable suspicion’ to make arrests,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is if they are illegally in the U.S. — NOT their skin color, race, or ethnicity.” McLaughlin did not address why Venegas was detained twice even though he’s a U.S. citizen.
The new lawsuit describes repeated raids on workplaces despite agents having no warrants nor suspicion that specific workers were in the U.S. illegally, and a string of U.S. citizens — many with Latino-sounding names — who were detained.
The Department of Homeland Security “authorizes these armed raids based on the general assumption that certain groups of people in the industry, including Latinos, are likely illegal immigrants,” the suit argues.
In a May raid that swept up Venegas, video shot by a coworker shows him being forced to the ground by immigration agents as he repeatedly insisted he was a U.S. citizen. The lawsuit says the agents targeted workers at the building site who looked Latino, while leaving alone the other workers. Venegas was released after more than an hour, according to the law firm.
Venegas was detained again at another construction site less than a month later.
“It feels like there is nothing I can do to stop immigration agents from arresting me whenever they want,” Leo said in a statement released by the law firm. “I just want to work in peace. The Constitution protects my ability to do that.”
Venegas, who specializes in laying concrete foundations, says he was detained both times despite showing his Alabama-issued REAL ID driver’s license — a higher-security identity card available only to U.S. citizens and legal residents.
Immigration agents told him the ID card was fake, before eventually releasing him. He was released after about 20-30 minutes.
“Immigration officers are not above the law,” Institute for Justice attorney Jaba Tsitsuashvili said in a statement. “Leo is a hardworking American citizen standing up for everyone’s right to work without being detained merely for the way they look or the job that they do.”
Man charged for role in bar shoot-out that killed 3; video shows chaotic scene
NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors have charged a man they say played a role in a gang-related shooting that broke out in a crowded Brooklyn bar this summer, leaving three dead and 10 others injured.
For the first time Wednesday, prosecutors also released security camera footage of the chaotic gunfight, which unfolded Aug. 17 inside the Taste of City Lounge in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn.
The video showed patrons scrambling for cover as bullets ricocheted across the densely-packed club, with at least 40 shots fired from five guns, prosecutors said.
Among the shooters was Elijah Roy, a 25-year-old gang member who arrived at the club with several associates, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday.
At around 3:30 a.m., one of those associates, Marvin St. Louis, 19, began taunting a rival gang member, Jamel Childs, 35, authorities said. The confrontation quickly escalated with, authorities said, St. Louis shooting at Childs, who returned fire. Both St. Louis and Childs were killed in the shoot-out, as was another man, 27-year-old Amadou Diallo, who is believed to have been a bystander.
After ducking under a table, Roy fired two shots, according to prosecutors. It was unclear if those shots hit anyone. He is accused of violent assault in aid of racketeering and illegal possession of ammunition.
Mehdi Essmidi, an attorney for Roy, did not respond to a voice message.
Prosecutors described Roy and St. Louis as members of the 5-9 Brims, a subset of the Bloods. They said Childs was part of a rival gang, the Folk Nation Gangster Disciples.
Roy was arrested last week in North Carolina, carrying $7,000 in cash, according to the criminal complaint. He was arraigned Wednesday afternoon and ordered held without bail.
New York City has seen a year of record-low gun violence, with the fewest number of shootings and shooting victims recorded across the city during the first nine months of 2025, according to police.
At a vigil held for the victims in August, Mayor Eric Adams said that “what happened in the Taste of the City is not a reflection of our city.”
Florida
Prosecutors won’t pursue battery charge against Dolphins’ Ryan Crow, who remains on leave from team
Prosecutors in Broward County, Florida, will not pursue charges against Miami Dolphins assistant coach Ryan Crow, who was arrested and accused of battering his girlfriend in August.
Crow, 37, has been on indefinite leave from his role as outside linebackers coach for the Dolphins after being arrested on Aug. 28 on one count of misdemeanor domestic battery after an argument with his live-in girlfriend, during which he allegedly shoved her, tried to slap her and appeared to lift her off the ground, according to an arrest report and statements from witnesses contained in a prosecutor’s memo.
In a closeout memo Wednesday, prosecutors wrote that the victim was uncooperative in the case and was adamant about not wanting charges filed. Prosecutors added they could not pursue the case without cooperation from the victim, because neither the witness accounts nor video surveillance clearly established that a battery occurred.
“Although the witnesses interpreted the victim’s need for help based upon their observations, the victim never said anything to them,” the memo said, “and these facts would not meet the legal threshold required for any of the witnesses to be permitted to testify in a court of law as to the victim’s state of mind.”
The altercation stemmed from an argument between the pair after returning home from a Dolphins’ work party. When the woman spoke with police that night, she told them that Crow had pushed her down stairs. Crow denied touching her when he spoke to police, stating their argument was only verbal, the memo said.
Police also spoke with three witnesses and reviewed police reports, body-camera videos and video surveillance from the building.
“They found that there’s no reasonable likelihood of conviction,” Crow’s lawyer, Michael Gottlieb, told The Associated Press. “I’m glad that coach Crow is being exonerated and that the charges are being dropped.”
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Wednesday that there would be no immediate change in Crow’s status with the team.
“We won’t even bridge that until the league is done with their process,” McDaniel said.
Crow is in his second season coaching Miami’s outside linebackers. He held the same position with the Tennessee Titans the three prior years. Defensive assistant Sean Ryan has led the unit in his place.
Hawaii
Real estate investor denies improper use of Shohei Ohtani’s likeness in lawsuit
HONOLULU (AP) — Lawyers for a Hawaii real estate investor and broker who sued Shohei Ohtani and his agent denied any improper use of the star’s likeness for a development project and alleged the agent was trying to deflect blame for cost overruns at the player’s home.
Ohtani and Nez Balelo of CAA Baseball were sued Aug. 8 in Hawaii Circuit Court for the First Circuit by developer Kevin J. Hayes Sr., real estate broker Tomoko Matsumoto, West Point Investment Corp. and Hapuna Estates Property Owners. They accused Ohtani and Balelo of “abuse of power” that allegedly resulted in tortious interference and unjust enrichment impacting a $240 million luxury housing development on the Big Island’s coveted Hapuna Coast.
Hayes and Matsumoto had been dropped from the development deal by Kingsbarn Realty Capital, the joint venture’s majority owner.
The amended complaint filed Tuesday added Creative Artists Agency and CAA Sports as defendants.
“Balelo and CAA sought to deflect blame by scapegoating Hayes for the cost overruns on Otani’s home — overruns caused entirely by defendants’ own decisions,” the complaint said.
“The allegations as we clarified them make very clear that there was never a breach of the endorsement agreement, the video that was posted on the website promoting specifically this project was sent to Balelo and CAA and another adviser to Ohtani, Mark Daulton, and they were aware of it and never objected to it,” said Josh Schiller, a lawyer for Hayes and the suing entities.
In a motion to dismiss filed Sept. 14, attorneys for Ohtani and Balelo said “plaintiffs exploited Ohtani’s name and photograph to drum up traffic to a website that marketed plaintiffs’ own side project development.”
“This is a desperate attempt to avoid dismissal of a frivolous complaint and, as we previously said, to distract from plaintiffs’ myriad of failures and their blatant misappropriation of Shohei Ohtani’s rights,” Laura Smolowe, a lawyer for Ohtani and Balelo, said in a statement. “Nez Balelo has always prioritized Mr. Ohtani’s best interests, including protecting his name, image, and likeness from unauthorized use.”
Lawyers for Hayes and the plaintiffs claimed they kept Balelo and CAA informed.
“Before the website went live, Hayes submitted a link to the entire site — including its promotional aspects — by email to Balelo and Terry Prince, the director of legal and business Affairs at CAA Sports LLC,” the amended complaint said. “It remained online with no material changes for 14 months before Balelo suddenly objected and threatened litigation — weaponizing the issue in order to create pretext for yet another set of demands and concessions.”
“The sudden demand that Kingsbarn terminate plaintiffs was instead a retaliatory measure against Hayes for resisting the constant and improper demands of Balelo and (Ohtani),” the complaint added. “Defendants further calculated that, with plaintiffs removed, they could more easily extract financial concessions from the project and enrich themselves at plaintiffs’ expense.”
Alabama
Lawsuit filed against immigration authorities after U.S. citizen’s arrests in raids
An Alabama construction worker and U.S. citizen who says he was detained twice by immigration agents within just a few weeks has filed a lawsuit in federal court demanding an end to Trump administration workplace raids targeting industries with large immigrant workforces.
The class-action lawsuit, filed Tuesday by concrete worker Leo Garcia Venegas with the public interest law firm Institute for Justice, demands an end to what the firm calls “unconstitutional and illegal immigration enforcement tactics.”
Venegas, who was born in the U.S., lives and works in Baldwin County, Alabama, a Gulf Coast area between the cities of Mobile and Pensacola, Florida, that has seen immense population growth in the last 15 years, and which offers plenty of construction work.
The lawsuit comes just weeks after the Supreme Court lifted a judge’s restraining order that had barred immigration agents in Los Angeles from stopping people solely based on their race, language, job or location.
The court has repeatedly allowed some of the Trump administrations harshest immigration policies, while also leaving open that legal outcomes could shift as cases play out.
The Department of Homeland Security dismissed the suit as “race-baiting opportunism.”
“DHS law enforcement uses ‘reasonable suspicion’ to make arrests,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is if they are illegally in the U.S. — NOT their skin color, race, or ethnicity.” McLaughlin did not address why Venegas was detained twice even though he’s a U.S. citizen.
The new lawsuit describes repeated raids on workplaces despite agents having no warrants nor suspicion that specific workers were in the U.S. illegally, and a string of U.S. citizens — many with Latino-sounding names — who were detained.
The Department of Homeland Security “authorizes these armed raids based on the general assumption that certain groups of people in the industry, including Latinos, are likely illegal immigrants,” the suit argues.
In a May raid that swept up Venegas, video shot by a coworker shows him being forced to the ground by immigration agents as he repeatedly insisted he was a U.S. citizen. The lawsuit says the agents targeted workers at the building site who looked Latino, while leaving alone the other workers. Venegas was released after more than an hour, according to the law firm.
Venegas was detained again at another construction site less than a month later.
“It feels like there is nothing I can do to stop immigration agents from arresting me whenever they want,” Leo said in a statement released by the law firm. “I just want to work in peace. The Constitution protects my ability to do that.”
Venegas, who specializes in laying concrete foundations, says he was detained both times despite showing his Alabama-issued REAL ID driver’s license — a higher-security identity card available only to U.S. citizens and legal residents.
Immigration agents told him the ID card was fake, before eventually releasing him. He was released after about 20-30 minutes.
“Immigration officers are not above the law,” Institute for Justice attorney Jaba Tsitsuashvili said in a statement. “Leo is a hardworking American citizen standing up for everyone’s right to work without being detained merely for the way they look or the job that they do.”
