By Rebecca Henely
Two men were killed last weekend in bloody confrontations in front of two nightclubs a little more than a mile away from each other, police sources said. The incidents were not connected.
In the first slaying, which took place on Broadway between 43rd and 44th streets in Astoria, a 29-year-old Bronx man, Derrick Moore, was shot at around 3:50 a.m. Saturday near the RSVP Lounge, police sources said. Police responded to a 911 call and found Moore with a gunshot wound in his chest. Moore was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital, where he died, police said.
The second incident took place a little more than 24 hours later. On Sunday at around 4:15 a.m., 26-year-old Brahim Passad of 157th Street in Flushing was stabbed in the torso during a dispute with Jose Soto, 25, of Brooklyn outside the Otro Rollo Tropical Night Club at 29-40 Northern Blvd. in Long Island City, police said. The man who had been stabbed was transported to Mt. Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced DOA, police said.
There are still no arrests in the incident in front of the RSVP lounge and the investigation is ongoing, police said.
Police announced Monday that Soto had been arrested and charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon.
A Broadway resident who asked not to be identified said he had been sleeping during the Saturday incident and was awakened by gunshots when Moore was killed.
“There was mayhem,” he said of the minutes immediately after the gunshot. “There were people on the streets, people screaming.”
He said he had heard from police that others were also injured in the incident, and one of the victims had been arrested on a prior criminal record.
Atiq Qazi, who lives in Astoria and works on Broadway, said patrons at the RSVP club have caused problems in the area.
“People lose their minds when they are drunk,” Qazi said.
Two employees of the club who were cleaning the blood off the sidewalk in front of the Otro Rollo nightclub early Sunday morning said they had not been working during the incident and knew nothing. The nightclub could not be reached for further comment.
The Post reported Moore was a merchant mariner who went to Queens to visit his family. He had been leaving the club with others and was shot by a stray bullet fired into the crowd, the Post said. The shooter had been aiming for one of Moore’s friends, who had an argument with the shooter earlier in Queensbridge, the Post said.
“It just seems like he was at the wrong place at the wrong time,” Chi Chi Wymes, Moore’s girlfriend, told the Post. “He never had problems with anybody.”
Family members of Passad could not be reached.
City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside), whose district encompasses Otro Rollo and is across the street from RSVP, said that while the investigations were in the early stages, the incidents were “deeply concerning.”
“The issue of out-of-control nightclubs needs to be addressed in a very serious and strategic way,” Van Bramer said.
Van Bramer was one of numerous politicians involved in shutting down the Casa Romana Bar in Sunnyside, where a bloody brawl occurred outside, last month.
Reach reporter Rebecca Henely by e-mail at rhenely@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4564.
