Spilled Drink Sets off Brawl in Brooklyn Bar

BY Sarah Armaghan, Henrick Karoliszyn and Jonathan Lemire

Plainclothes police officers shot two armed men - killing one - during a wild gun battle inside a Brooklyn bar early Sunday, police said. A fight over a spilled drink ignited the brawl at the Norwood Palace Sports Bar in Cypress Hills, resulting in a pair of armed confrontations and the death of an ex-con working security.

"It was a beautiful party until this fight started happening," said Timothy Stokes, 44, who was working as a DJ inside the bar and saw a man spill a drink on a woman.

"As I was running back into the DJ booth, shots rang out, then plainclothes cops rushed in," said Stokes, who goes by DJ Stokes.

"I kept hearing, 'Pop, pop, pop.'"

Two cops in street clothes from the 75th Precinct pulled up to the bar minutes after a patron called 911 at 3:11 a.m., police said.

As the pair approached a side entrance, a 19-year-old man burst through the door, police said. The cops confronted the man - who was carrying a small-caliber semi-automatic handgun - and officers opened fire, police said.

The man was hit three times in the chest, police said. It was not immediately clear what was said between the cops and the gun-toting man or if the teenager unleashed any shots, police said.

As cops secured the wounded man, who had collapsed at the doorway, they heard the fight still raging at the bar and rushed inside, police said.

Witnesses said partygoers were throwing wooden bar stools at each other and that at least one gun was flashed amid the crowd. "They were yelling and then started throwing bar stools," said one witness, who was afraid to give her name.

"That's when the shots started going off."

"[One guy] pulled out his gun and started shooting," she said. "A bunch of people jumped on top of him and started beating him up - punching him and kicking him."

As the cops rushed to the bar, several gunshots were fired from the crowd, police said.

Police said that Kevin White, who was working security for a private party at the bar, had unleashed several shots and then pointed a gun at the cops - who quickly opened fire.

White, 43, was hit in the neck and toppled to the ground, witnesses said.

"I heard cops yelling, 'Put the gun down. Drop it, drop it!'" said Stokes. "I heard more shots and saw the bouncer get hit."

"He hunched over and fell to the ground [and] yelled, 'Help me! Help me!,'" Stokes recalled. "There was a lot of blood everywhere. He was just laying next to me, dying."

White had a .357 Magnum in his hand when he was shot, and a semi-automatic handgun was found nearby, police said.

He died a short time later at Brookdale Hospital. White, a father of two who once worked security for Mariah Carey, had 28 prior arrests, including busts for gun possession, robbery and assault. He was convicted of assault but changed his life when he was released from prison four years ago, his family said.

"I can't believe this," said his brother Louis White. "He turned his life all around and then he gets shot like that. It's not right."

White's brother claimed witnesses told him the bouncer had taken a gun from an armed partygoer and that cops shot the wrong man.

"They shot him after he took a gun from some younger kid," said Louis White, 41. "He was doing the right thing. He was doing his job."

White, nicknamed "Say Say" and a member of the X-Ryders SUV club, was originally going to work in another bar but took the job at Norwood Palace after he was offered $225 for the shift, his friends said.

The 19-year-old who was shot - whose name was not immediately released - was taken to Jamaica Hospital in stable condition, police said.

Another man who was working security at the club had a bullet hit his protective vest and was not hurt, witnesses said.

It was not immediately clear how many shots were fired or how many people may face charges, police said.

Witnesses said they were stunned that the seemingly peaceful night so quickly erupted into bloodshed.

"I can't believe something so trivial as a spilled drink turned into something so tragic," said Stokes. "It takes one idiot to throw a drink, and it just escalated.

Now someone's dead."