Jamel Andre Childs, a 35-year-old man, was killed on August 17, 2025, in a mass shooting inside the Taste of the City Lounge in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. The incident, which erupted around 3:30 a.m., was the result of a gang-related dispute and left two others dead and ten people wounded.
The New York Police Department identified Childs as a member of the Folk Nation gang and one of the shooters in the deadly exchange of gunfire. The violence reportedly began when Marvin St. Louis, 19, an associate of the rival 5-9 Brims gang, opened fire on Childs. Childs returned fire, and the situation quickly escalated, with at least two other individuals joining the shootout. In the ensuing chaos, over 40 shots were fired from multiple guns. Both Childs and St. Louis were fatally wounded in the gunfight.
An innocent bystander, 27-year-old Amadou Diallo, was also killed in the crossfire. Diallo, who was working as a delivery driver, was on his bike outside the lounge when he was struck by the gunfire. The ages of the non-fatally wounded victims ranged from 27 to 61.
In the wake of the shooting, investigators identified four individuals as having discharged firearms. Following an investigation, Elijah Roy, 25, an associate of the 5-9 Brims, was arrested in North Carolina on September 18, 2025. He was subsequently charged in federal court in Brooklyn with assault in-aid-of racketeering and being a felon in possession of ammunition. Roy was reportedly with Marvin St. Louis at the lounge on the night of the shooting.
While two of the four gunmen, Childs and St. Louis, were killed during the incident, and a third, Elijah Roy, was arrested, the status of the fourth suspected shooter remains unclear from available online sources. Reports issued shortly after the shooting indicated that two suspects were at large, but updates have only detailed the apprehension and charging of Roy. Information regarding Jamel Andre Childs' ethnicity has not been made available in the online sources covering his death and the subsequent investigation.
