By Aidan Gardiner and Jess Wisloski
DNAinfo.com New York Reporters
A 36-year-old man was shot in a barrage of gunfire early Sunday morning outside a Queens nightclub, police said.
Residents who live near the club, Vibes, at Liberty Avenue and Remington Street, say it has a troubled history, and that the homicide is the most worrisome incident so far in a string of concerning disruptions that have come from the Jamaica venue.
Police identified the victim as Anthony Robertson, 36, of South Ozone Park.
Robertson was shot in the upper torso, around 4:43 a.m., and had been transported prior to the arrival of police to Jamaica Hospital in critical condition. He died later of his injuries.
At 143-06 Liberty Avenue, Vibes is a standalone on an otherwise quieter strip, and is surrounded almost entirely by residential blocks.
"I thought it was firecrackers. Then I thought wait a minute, it isn't fourth of July yet," said Janet Bobb, 33, who has lived in a house near where the shooting occurred for five years.
"Then I heard the screech of cars pulling out. Next thing I know, I see a bunch of twinkling lights, because the police had come."
Bobb, who came from Georgetown, Guyana, said disruptions from the club were not uncommon. "All my life I've lived in a bullet-ridden area and when I moved here I thought I'd be through with all that," she lamented.
One woman, who said she was a pastor, but did not want her name used, said she's been in her home for a decade, and it directly faces where the shooting occurred.
"We heard people screaming and people running to their cars, running like hell," she said. "I'm not happy that someone died, but when things like this happen, the police start to pay attention."
She said she'd called the police before for previous incidents like fights at the club, which she thinks attracts a bad clientele. She said it wasn't the first time they'd heard gunshots.
"Me and my husband can't sleep in the front of our house because we're afraid," she added.
Police said no arrests had been made, and an investigation was ongoing.
