Two brave bouncers have been credited for stopping a bloody shooting spree that left one man brain dead early Saturday morning, police said.
Cops said security guards standing outside of Club 9ja Villa on Avenue N and E. 51st Street in Old Mill Basin — who police didn’t name — followed shooting suspect Michael Magnan after the 19-year-old rushed up to them, demanding their money, not knowing that he had just shot a 23-year-old during a botched livery cab robbery moments earlier,
Magnan allegedly pistol-whipped one of the bouncers and ran off after the two men rebuffed him, police said. Startled, but determined to get the gunman before he hurt anyone else, the duo trailed Magnan to a home on E. 52nd Street, flagging down a cop car racing to the shooting scene, investigators say.
Cops arrested Magnan without incident. Charges against the 19-year-old were still pending by our breakneck Sunday night deadline as investigators and prosecutors from Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes’s office try to figure out how many crimes Magnan is responsible for.
According to published reports, Magnan’s spree began at about 1:30 am when he allegedly shot four people sitting on the porch of a home near the corner of E.54th Street and Avenue O. One person was hit in the stomach and the leg, the other three suffered minor injuries, according to the New York Daily News, a Manhattan newspaper.
A short time later, Magnan allegedly popped up outside of Club eSavoy on Flatbush Avenue and Avenue R, where he attacked two bouncers, witnesses told reporters.
Within an hour, police said Magnan approached a Gateway car service livery cab idling at a red light on Utica Avenue near Avenue O. He threw open the driver’s side door and threatened the cabbie with a firearm, but the cabbie fought back, socking him in the face.
A struggle ensued that resulted in Magnan firing off a wild shot which struck Nikita Grebelsky — who was sitting in the back seat with his sister — once in the head, according to police.
Grebelsky was pronounced brain dead at Kings County Hospital a few hours later, his family told the New York Post.
Police say Magnan was arrested 20 minutes later after the shooting during a heated pursuit.
That afternoon, Magnan — complaining of stomach pains and wearing a white jumpsuit and a set of handcuffs — denied any wrongdoing as he was escorted from the 63rd Precinct station house to Kings County Hospital.
“I didn’t shoot nobody,” he told reporters on his way out.
A spokesman for DA Hynes said Magnan won’t be arraigned until detectives finish outlining the charges against the 19-year-old.
Check back with Brooklyn Daily to find out more about Magnan’s fate and the shooting spree.
