Dominican parade shut down in NYC over stabbing, violence

After the annual Dominican Day Parade in Manhattan on Sunday became rowdy with abusive crowds and a teen slashing a 65-year-old man across the face, city authorities abruptly shut it down.

The parade has attracted up to 500,000 spectators throughout its 42-year-old history and brings together the local Dominican community with a wide range of musical entertainment and the usual government standbys, the New York Post reports. It starts on Sixth Avenue and continues to West 59th Street, the entrance to Central Park.

When the event began to unravel, the New York Police Department quickly tried to control the situation by putting back barricades that the crowd had knocked over, stopping the floats, and even arresting one individual – a 19-year-old man who was charged with slashing the elderly man’s face and hands with a knife. Police asked the crowd the disperse, took the injured man to hospital, and reportedly recovered the weapon on-scene.

The NYPD diverted the parade to 52nd St, and several floats were barred from finishing the route.

“We’re shutting it down — at this point, it’s gotten out of hand,” an NYPD source reportedly told The Post.

Some of those attending the parade thought the city’s response was an overreaction.

“I don’t really understand why they shut it down, we were just having fun,” Cynthia Lopez told The Post. She has been a regular at the Dominican Parade since she was a child.

“No one was hurt. No one was fighting,” she said, apparently not aware of the injured man. “We were all having fun, dancing and boom — shut down.”

“I can’t believe it,” she said.

The NYPD is concerned about public displays of violence since illegal immigrants have bitten officers and then been released from jail without bail. Years of defunding the police have reduced the force to its smallest number since 1990. An illegal from Venezuela shot and injured police officers in June.