CHELSEA — A gunfight broke out on 14th Street early Tuesday morning, with two groups of people firing shots at each other from opposite sides of the street, police said.
The melee started inside of the Good Stuff Diner at 109 W. 14th St. just west of Sixth Avenue, where one group was sitting just after 5 a.m. when the second group walked in. The two groups immediately started fighting, and as the dispute escalated, it spilled onto the street outside, police said.
The two groups exchanged gunfire from either side of 14th Street, and then people from one of the groups jumped into two cars, a white two-door BMW and white Mercedes, and took off, police said.
A blood trail was found at the scene, police said.
Police said a witness reported seeing a man in his mid-20s get into a yellow cab at the scene just before 6:20 a.m., and they were able to trace the cab to St. Barnabus Hospital, where a man was dropped off with a gunshot wound to his torso.
Police were working Tuesday to determine whether the man was a victim of the shooting.
Good Stuff Diner was the site of a fatal shooting in 2010, when 24-year-old Earle Barranco killed 28-year-old Corey Scott, authorities said. Barranco was ultimately apprehended at a basketball game in North Carolina after being spotted on an N.B.A. Jumbotron. He and Scott had apparently been partners in crime before their relationship soured.
Staff at Good Stuff Diner declined to comment Tuesday morning.
With reporting by Heather Holland
