Three men, including a 19-year-old, were killed and nine other people were injured early Sunday when a dispute inside a crowded New York City nightclub erupted into a shooting incident that police said appeared to have involved multiple gunmen firing dozens of shots.

A fatal Crown Heights shooting prompted New York City mayoral candidates to clash over crime policies as city grapples with recent surge in gun violence incidents.

Within minutes, officers arrived, finding that nine men and three women, ranging in age from 19 to 61, had been shot. Three men died. Marvin St. Louis, 19, was pronounced dead at the scene. Amadou Diallo, 27, and Jamel Childs, 35, were critically wounded and succumbed to their injuries at the hospital.

The Brooklyn hookah lounge where three people were killed and nine others wounded early Sunday was right at the scene of another shooting less than a year ago.

Speaking with reporters at a canvass launch event in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NYC Democratic mayoral candidate, Zohran Mamdani, called the shooting "another example of the scourge of gun violence" in New York City.

A second gunman has been arrested in connection with this week’s incident in Brooklyn where police shot one suspected gunman, law enforcement sources with knowledge of the case said Thursday, as both alleged shooters now face federal charges.

The alleged gunman whom police officers in Brooklyn shot Tuesday night following a brazen street shootout was a parolee who never should have been out of jail, a prominent police official said. Standing on Ocean and Church Avenues — not far from where spent shell casings littered the pavement — Assistant Chief Frank Giordano,