A man was shot — and hundreds were sent fleeing into the street — when a party inside a notorious Dyker Heights nightclub turned violent on Sunday night.
Eddie Gravely, 31, was shot in the leg and remains in the intensive care unit at Lutheran Hospital after a gunshot punctured the din inside the F1 Nightclub on 65th Street at around 2:45 am.
Gravely, also known as E3, is part of a Staten Island-based musical group known as Three Kings, which was hosting an event billed as the “Three Kings Birthday Celebration.”
Cops did not say what provoked the shooting at the club, which is between Eighth and Ninth avenues. The unknown perp is still on the loose, but cops found .40-caliber shell casing at the club, which had been shut down earlier this summer amid allegations of fighting and underage drinking.
As a result of those earlier alleged transgressions, the 68th Precinct stepped up patrols in the area around the club — and cops were outside the club at the time of the shooting, forcing their way towards the door as nightclubbers poured outside.
Cops got to the entrance just as the bleeding Gravely was being carried out to the street, according to the precinct’s commanding officer, Deputy Inspector Eric Rodriguez.
“F1 is not being a responsible member of the community,” Rodriguez said. “We’ve had to assign extra resources to the club because of the violence.”
Rodriguez was referring to not only an incident in May, when two 21-year-old partiers were stabbed down the street from the nightspot, and subsequent violence that led to the club being shut down by cops on July 9.
The city allowed F1 to reopen five days later, but required management to notify police seven days in advance if more than 200 people are expected to show up at an event. Police say that F1 has not been complying with that mandate.
Cops have also received complaints from Dyker Heights residents who are concerned about the club.
“It’s been a real problem for sometime now,” said Fran Vella-Marrone, president of the Dyker Heights Civic Association. “We’ve been following up with police about our concerns.”
F1 management did not return calls for comment.
The club is also in hot water with the State Liquor Authority, which may revoke the liquor license at an upcoming hearing, according to spokesman William Crowley. F1 has racked up 15 violations in the past two years, including three in May for serving alcohol to minors and another that same month for not properly responding to an assault in the parking lot.
