A 17-year-old boy was shot during a prom party inside an upscale Brooklyn high-rise apartment building on Thursday night, police and officials said.
The boy was shot in the torso just before 8:40 p.m. at a party inside PLG, a glitzy 26-story residential tower at 123 Linden Boulevard, near the border of East Flatbush and Prospect Lefferts Gardens.
He was rushed to Kings County Hospital where he is in stable condition, police said.
Neighbors said they first thought it was fireworks, but then saw two young children running down the block.
“I was standing across the street talking to one of my neighbors and I thought I heard firecrackers, and then another guy said, ‘No, I think I heard gunshots,'” a 61-year-old resident who gave his name only by his nickname, Sharkey, told The Washington Post.
“Then I saw two little kids running down the block. They were really fast.”
Police say no arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
“These kids don’t feel like they’ve been raised that way,” Sharkey says. “They don’t know what anyone has, they don’t know what anyone does. I love life, and these kids don’t know anything.”
Apartments in the 467-unit building where the original shooting occurred were put up for sale in 2020. Studios are currently listed for sale for $2,845 a month and two-bedroom units for $4,495, according to listings on StreetEasy.
Designed by Hill West Architects, the tower will feature a variety of amenities, including a rooftop pool, indoor pool and hot tub, steam room and sauna, full-service gym, half-court basketball, golf simulator, private party rooms, dog run, children’s playroom, co-working lounge, movie theater and 24-hour front desk.
Despite the lavish perks and 24-hour doorman, residents and neighbors say the building is a hotbed of violence and safety hazards.
“The building looks great, but not everything that glitters is gold,” said Dwayne Williamson, a tenant who rents a one-bedroom unit at PLG for $3,400 a month.
“There’s a pool, amenities, all the facilities,” he added. “But the issue is safety.”
Williamson, 46, said the doorman was letting anyone into the building.
“I don’t even know if the boy lived in the building,” he said of the shooting victim. “Unfortunately, anyone can enter this building.”
“This isn’t the first time something has happened there,” Sharkey said. “Something happens there all the time, but this is unbelievable.”
Williamson said since moving in in April 2021, she has witnessed and heard about countless crimes.
“There’s been a lot of different incidents,” he told The Post. “Last year we had a slashing. We had someone robbed of $40,000. We had someone jump off a roof. We had someone pushed out a fourth-story window.”
Williamson said tenants have complained to management about safety concerns but “haven’t gotten any answers.”
“You’d think that a building that’s going to house 5,000 people would be able to meet our needs because we’re paying exorbitant rents,” he said.
“Management has emailed us saying they’re beefing up security and asking for ID, but having one person behind a desk and everyone being able to stand up defeats the purpose.”
Additional reporting by Larry Cerona
