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Cuomo Staffer Shot in Head Near West Indian Parade Route

By  Camille Bautista and Trevor Kapp | September 7, 2015 11:52am 

 Gov. Andrew Cuomo marches in the 2015 West Indian Day Parade on Eastern Parkway. Carey Gabay, a lawyer who works in the Cuomo's administration, inset, is in critical condition after being shot in the head early Monday morning, officials said.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo marches in the 2015 West Indian Day Parade on Eastern Parkway. Carey Gabay, a lawyer who works in the Cuomo's administration, inset, is in critical condition after being shot in the head early Monday morning, officials said.
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New York State Governor's Office and DNAinfo/Rachel Holliday Smith

CROWN HEIGHTS — A staffer for Gov. Andrew Cuomo is in critical condition after being shot in the head near the West Indian Parade route early Monday, officials said.

Carey Gabay, first deputy general counsel at Empire State Development, was hit by gunfire at about 3:40 a.m. on Bedford Avenue near Montgomery Street, according to police.

The 43-year-old appeared to be an innocent bystander, police sources said. No arrests have been made.

Gabay is listed in critical condition at Kings County Hospital, according to Cuomo’s office.

The Harvard graduate, who Cuomo described as a “kind-hearted man,” joined the administration in 2011 and formerly served as assistant counsel to the governor.

"Carey is a friend to all who have the pleasure of meeting him," Cuomo said in a statement. "I ask that New Yorkers join us by keeping him, his wife Trenelle and his family in their prayers at this time."

“This tragic shooting — this one by another seemingly random bullet — is the latest heartbreaking reminder that the crime of gun violence must stop. Enough young, innocent people have died, and it must stop now.”

Gabay and his wife are expecting their first child, the governor told the Daily News.

Richard Robinson, a tenant at the Ebbets Field apartments across the street, said he heard about 15 shots from his home on the 15th floor.

“‘Bang! Bang! Bang!’ They were one after another. You could tell it was an automatic,” Robinson, 59, said. “People started running every which way. It was pandemonium.”

The shooting was one in a series of violent incidents that occurred in the same area as J’Ouvert, a pre-parade festival in Brooklyn that kicked off early Monday morning.