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A neighborhood block party in Brooklyn ended with a shooting late Saturday that killed a 38-year-old man and wounded 11 people, despite a large police presence at the event, the authorities said.

Investigators were searching for at least one gunman on Sunday, according to the police.

The shooting started minutes before 11 p.m., near the intersection of Christopher and Hegeman Avenues, where hundreds of people were gathered at a playground for the annual Brownsville Old Timers Day, the police said.

The man who was killed was shot in the head and died at Brookdale Hospital, according to the police, who had not released his name. The wounded partygoers were taken to area hospitals, where at least six were in serious condition.

On Twitter, Mayor Bill de Blasio lamented the “terrible shooting” that had “shattered a peaceful neighborhood event.”

“Our hearts go out to the victims,” he wrote. “We will do everything in our power to keep this community safe and get guns off our streets.”

The police said investigators did not yet know how many attackers had been involved, or whether the target had been the crowd or someone in or near it. It was not clear if a gun recovered at the scene had been used in the shooting, police officials said.

Videos circulating online after the mayhem show the police trying to gain control of a chaotic and sprawling crime scene full of residents and strewn with food containers, bottles, chairs and tables. The bloodshed turned police cars into ambulances as officers helped rush victims to the hospital, police and fire officials said.

The shooting quickly eclipsed what was becoming a success story in Brownsville, a neighborhood where crime has historically been higher than most other places in the city. Shootings in the neighborhood have declined this year from 2018, and fewer people had been struck by gunfire over the same period, according to police data through July 21, the most recent available.

Brownsville’s decline in shootings has defied a rise in violence in other parts of northern Brooklyn that the police have said has contributed to a citywide increase in shootings. Overall in New York, there have been more shootings and slightly more people struck by gunfire so far this year compared to the same period in 2018, according to police data.

Brownsville drew renewed attention last week after video surfaced of a man there pouring a pail of water over a police officer’s head. The video was one of at least four that escalated a public debate about how restrained officers should be when they are abused by the public.

The shootings disrupted what in many New York City neighborhoods is an annual ritual. Even in some of the city’s grittiest neighborhoods, warm-weather block parties draw neighbors outside for conversation, food and drinks, games and music.

Old Timers Day, a tradition since 1963, capped more than a week of festivities that included musical performances, a fashion and talent show, and a street festival, according to a photo of the event flier that organizers had posted on Facebook.

The caption read, “All r welcome let’s come in peace.”

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