Ten teens shot outside Jamaica nightclub on New Year’s Day
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Police tape and trash litter the sidewalk in front of the Amazura nightclub in Jamaica, where 10 people suffered gunshot wounds the previous night. Eagle photo by Noah Powelson
By Noah Powelson
2025 started in horror for residents of Jamaica, as a mass shooting left 10 teenagers injured and the community reeling last week.
Just before midnight on Jan. 1, four unidentified men opened fire on a crowd of about 15 young people waiting in line outside the Amazura nightclub in Jamaica, injuring 10 before driving off. The victims, all aged 19 or younger, were rushed to local hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries. No arrests have been made and officials have not reported any suspects.
“There's zero tolerance for these senseless shootings,” NYPD Chief of Patrol Philip Rivera said during a late-night press conference outside the venue hours after the shooting. “Those responsible for this crime will be apprehended and brought to justice.”
Rivera said the suspects fired roughly 30 bullets into the crowd before fleeing down 91st Street towards 143rd Place.
According to the NYPD, all 10 of the victims were teenagers, with the oldest being 19 years old. The youngest victim, who was shot in the right thigh, was 16 years old. All of the victims are expected to recover.
The motive behind the shooting is still under investigation and is not immediately known, officials said.
Rivera definitively said the shooting was “not a terrorist attack” to assuage fears of further violence following the New Orleans New Year’s Eve attack when a man drove his truck into a crowd, killing 14.
Police officials said they were also looking into a potential gang connection during the press conference, but said the investigation is early in the process.
“It’s one of the avenues we’re pursuing but it is too early to tell right now,” Rivera said.
Roughly 90 people were inside the venue when the shooting took place, with another 15 waiting in a line outside the building. Multiple outlets reported on Thursday that the gathering was to celebrate the birthday of the late 16-year-old Taearion Mungo, who was shot and killed in Brooklyn last October. The NYPD did not confirm the reason for the party when asked by the Eagle.
Police officials also said that they were looking into the venue’s licensing, given that all of the victims were underage.
“That’s part of our review, we’re very familiar with this location,” Rivera said. “We’ll look into all sorts of licensing and whether they’re appropriately operated.”
The NYPD reportedly has an established relationship with the nightclub due to past shooting incidents, according to Councilmember James Gennaro.
The councilmember said that Amazura had an ongoing agreement with the 103rd Precinct as part of the city’s Cure Violence Program. Under the agreement, the club would notify the precinct ahead of time when it planned to host parties and the NYPD would provide police officers for security to deter violence if needed.
But Gennaro said the club bucked the agreement on Jan. 1.
“Early reports suggest that the Cure Violence protocol was not followed by Amazura in this episode and that the police were not made aware of this event and therefore were not on scene to deter last night’s violence,” Gennaro went on to say. “These details are still being investigated.”
The shooting infuriated elected officials across the World’s Borough.
“Ten families woke up this morning to some of the most devastating news one could imagine receiving — their loved one had been shot,” Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said in a statement. “My thoughts are with the victims and all those impacted as they navigate this life-changing ordeal, and I'm relieved that seemingly no lives will be lost due to this despicable shooting.”
“I have been in constant communication with law enforcement, and while it does not appear this incident has a Queens nexus, under no circumstance will we allow any example of gun violence in our borough to go unpunished,” Richards added.
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams added her voice to the calls of sadness and outrage, signaling that more must be done to address growing gun violence.
“The scourge of gun violence continues to devastate communities like ours that have experienced far too many losses to bear, leaving behind trauma that, if unaddressed, only perpetuated cycles of harm,” Adams said in a statement. “Our priority must also be to ensure the victims and our communities have the support and resources needed to heal from this traumatic shooting.”
While Gennaro said the tragedy could have been prevented if the venue had complied with the NYPD, Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers said the mass shooting was another example of the harms of illegal firearms.
“I am deeply heartbroken by the tragic mass shooting at Amazura nightclub on New Year's Day. My heartfelt condolences go out to the young people who were wounded and their families,” Brooks-Powers said in a statement. “The celebration of life for Taerion Mungo, a victim of gun violence, should never have ended in this tragedy. Yesterday's events serve as a somber reminder that illegal guns must be removed from our streets to ensure a safer New York.”
According to CompStat, the NYPD’s publicly available database that tracks reported crimes across the city, crime in South Jamaica has increased somewhat in the previous year. In the 103rd Precinct, the number of shooting victims in 2024 doubled compared to 2023, from 12 to 25.
Robbery and assault likewise saw a 12.9 percent and a 19.4 percent increase in 2024 when compared to 2023. There were also noticeably more burglaries in the area in 2024, with about a 42.7 percent increase from the previous year.
The morning after the shooting, the streets outside Amazura were covered in police tape, trash and piles of what appeared to be blood. Local Jamaica residents who live and work near the nightclub told the Eagle the shooting was hardly surprising, and that they were doubtful the NYPD would make the neighborhood safer in response.
“I don’t really think anything will come of this,” Shazam, an engineer who works at the Rosco manufacturing warehouse just around the corner from the Amazura, told the Eagle. “I don’t really have much faith in the police, I’ve seen shootings in front of my home in St. Albans, reported it with video and everything, but nothing happened.”
When asked if this incident made him worried about his safety, the Queens resident shrugged and said he felt violence like the shooting seen outside of the Jamaica club was a common occurrence in the city.
“I’m used to it,” he said.
