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Anti-Violence March Held in Crown Heights After Death of Cuomo Staffer

By  Rachel Holliday Smith and Ben Fractenberg | September 17, 2015 7:51pm 

 Brooklyn residents and community leaders held a vigil and march in Crown Heights Sept. 17, 2015 for Gov. Andrew Cuomo staffer Carey Gabay, who died on Wednesday after being shot before the West Indian Day Parade. 
Carey Gabay March
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CROWN HEIGHTS — A trumpeter played "Amazing Grace" while more than 100 people marched down Eastern Parkway Thursday evening to denounce violence.  

Brooklyn residents and community leaders gathered in Crown Heights to pray and speak out following a spate of violence on Labor Day weekend, including the death of Gov. Andrew Cuomo staffer Carey Gabay, who was shot in the head by a stray bullet in the early morning hours of on Sept. 7 before the West Indian Day Parade. 

Crown Heights City Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo lamented the loss of Gabay and others affected by violence. 

Suspects in Shooting of Carey Gabay
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NYPD

"All lives matter, whether high profile or not," Cumbo said. 

Gabay, 43, was shot during J'Ouvert celebrations on Bedford Avenue, near Montgomery Street at 3:40 a.m. on Sept. 7.

A day after the shooting, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said he believed that Gabay was caught in the crossfire between two rival rival gangs

Police released video of two armed suspects seen running from the shooting into the Ebbets Field apartments.  

The NYPD was offering a $12,500 reward for information leading to their arrest. 

Tamesha Fulmore, who has lived in Ebbets Field Apartments for 33 years, said she attended the rally because the community is "worried as parents and mothers."

Fulmore that she is worried especially about young people in the community.

"Our children are just dying too young," she said.

Gabay had been in a coma for 10 days at Kings County Hospital before being listed as brain dead Wednesday. He died later that day. 

"He was a friend and role model to the many people who were blessed to have known him and he will be greatly missed," Cuomo said. "The state of New York has lost one of its finest men."

Gabay grew up in housing projects in The Bronx and attend Harvard University and Harvard Law School before joining the Cuomo administration as general council for the Empire State Development Corp

At the march, Rabbi Eli Cohen of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council offered a prayer for Gabay. 

"The tragedy of a soul that is cut off before its time is a tragedy for the entire universe."

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams called for increased funding for grassroots anti-violence groups like Save Our Streets who were doing "the real work" in the wake of Gabay's death.