At Irving Plaza, near Union Square in Manhattan, after gunfire broke out at a concert headlined by the rapper T.I. on Wednesday. Credit Louis Lanzano for The New York Times.
A 33-year-old man was killed and three other people were wounded when gunfire broke out during a rap concert at Irving Plaza in Manhattan on Wednesday night, sending panicked concertgoers streaming for the exits, the police and witnesses said.
The victims were three men and one woman, a spokesman for the New York Police Department said. One of the men arrived at New York University Medical Center on his own, the police said. The motive for the shootings was unclear, and no arrests had been made as of late Wednesday night, the police said.
The rapper T.I. was about to headline a concert at the club in the Union Square area when shots were fired around 10:15 p.m., witnesses and the police said. The rappers Maino and Uncle Murda were on stage when the shooting happened in a third-floor green room, the police said.
Ayo Fagbemi, 21, a University of Pennsylvania student, said T.I.’s D.J. was playing songs to warm up the crowd for the rapper.
“Right when he was about to go on I heard two gunshots, and right after, there was a stampede,” Mr. Fagbemi said. “There were at least three rounds, but after the second one was when people started running.”
Detectives were interviewing people who attended the concert and looking at video footage from inside and outside the venue.
There were metal detectors for those attending the concert, but it was not clear how the gun got into the club. It was also unclear how many shots were fired.
Paul Cantor, 34, of Manhattan, was in the back of the club, which he said was filled with about 1,000 people. He said his attention was drawn to a fight backstage that spilled onto the stage.
Mr. Cantor described seeing a man falling backward like a boxer who had been hit by a hard punch. “There was a body that came across the stage, sort of with flailing arms,” he said.
He said a second fight — perhaps related to the first — then broke out on the club’s floor. It was maybe five seconds from the time he saw the fights to when people said they heard shots, he said.
Sagine Morency, 20, said she “got stomped on” and lost a sandal in the hasty exit.
T.I., 35, whose given name is Clifford Harris, is a multiplatinum rapper and actor from Atlanta. Since 2001, he has released nine studio albums and successfully crossed over into the pop realm, scoring two No. 1 singles on the Billboard chart: “Whatever You Like” and “Live Your Life,” featuring Rihanna.
In 2009, T.I. pleaded guilty to three federal weapons charges stemming from a 2007 sting operation in which he was caught obtaining three machine guns and two silencers that had been bought for him. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to one year and one day in prison.
Along with performing more than 1,000 hours of community service as part of his sentence, he participated in the MTV reality series “T.I.’s Road to Redemption,” in which he stressed the danger of guns. In 2010, he returned to prison after violating his probation.
The rapper’s life has been chronicled in recent years on the VH1 reality show “T.I. & Tiny: The Family Hustle.” He announced in February that his 10th album, “Dime Trap,” would be released by his own Grand Hustle label in partnership with Jay Z’s Roc Nation. T.I. is also an artist-owner of Jay Z’s music streaming service, Tidal.
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