A Bronx father was the apparent innocent victim of a wild nightclub shooting that left him dead and two others wounded – all because of a dispute involving the DJ, cops said.
“I was on the dance floor, and I heard shots firing around me. Everybody was running for cover,” said one witness who was at the Flamingo Lounge Bar and Grill in Pelham Gardens when the bullets started flying just before 6 a.m. yesterday.
“I ran into the men’s bathroom,” said Wade, 42, an auto-body engineer. “A bunch of ladies were in there screaming and trying to call 911. A shot went through the bathroom door.
“Then the cops came and took us out of the bathroom . . . I could see the dead body on the sidewalk. How could this happen?”
Gary Grey, 31, of Ely Avenue was struck in the stomach by several shots, police said. The construction worker, who has a 10-year-old son with his girlfriend, was pronounced dead at the scene.
A 27-year-old man who was shot in the right arm was listed in stable condition at Jacobi Medical Center yesterday.
A 26-year-old woman who was grazed in the head by a bullet, was treated and then released from the hospital.
Grey’s grieving mother, Remalin Lewis, said another son called to tell her about the killing.
“He was shouting and screaming, he was crying,” said Lewis, 47.
“I got dressed and went to the scene. The police told me I couldn’t see him, but I saw him covered in a white sheet. I’m still in shock. I can’t believe it. It’s like they ripped something out of my insides.”
The grieving mother said she last saw her son at 11 p.m. Saturday. “He was in my room, watching TV, and he asked me to take care of my nephew while he took a shower,” she said.
The incident began after a man at the dance club at 1769 E. Gun Hill Road argued with a DJ, police said. That customer left, but returned shortly afterward with several friends, cops said.
As least one person in that crew – a man said to be in his 30s – began firing wildly, cops said. The shooter and his cohorts then fled.
Lewis called her son “a quiet guy” whose passion was cooking Caribbean food. “He would go to work and come home. He wasn’t a regular partygoer.”
Of Grey’s killer, Lewis said, “His day is coming.” She added that cops have good leads about the shooter’s identity.
Grey’s friend, Nneka Ottey, 22, said the dead man was known as “GDawg” and made a point of greeting everyone by the moniker “dawg.”
“He was just my motivator. He was my rock . . . my mentor,” Ottey said.