While the Law & Order franchise is certainly no stranger to featuring shocking and deadly crimes across its 30+ years, such incidents usually remain entirely within the realm of fiction. However, an area near the on-location set of NBC’s current spinoff Law & Order: Organized Crime was the scene of a shooting on the morning of Tuesday, July 19, with one crew member shot dead as a result.
An unidentified parking enforcement worker was reportedly sitting in his car outside of a N. Henry St. address in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood when, at 5:15 a.m. ET, an also-unnamed suspect opened the car door. According to EW, who confirmed details with NYPD Detective Adam Navarro, the assailant shot the Organized Crime employee in the face and neck multiple times.
At this point, the man was taken to the NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 5:55 a.m. ET. It wasn't immediately clear whether the victim was directly employed by Law & Order: Organized Crime to make sure people didn't park in certain areas, or whether he was contracted by a third party company. NBC and Universal Television representatives did confirm the man was indeed a crew member, and issued the below statement
We were terribly saddened and shocked to hear that one of our crew members was the victim of a crime early this morning and has died as a result. We are working with local law enforcement as they continue to investigate. Our hearts go out to his family and friends and we ask that you respect their privacy during this time.
At the time of this writing, no arrests have been made, and it appears as if the police aren't aware of the man's identity yet. But the NYPD detective described the shooter as being a male around 5'4", as having a "thin build" and a "medium complexion." As far as what he was wearing, the suspect donned a black hoodie as well as black pants.
Law & Order: Organized Crime was renewed for Season 3 earlier this year, and is currently filming ahead of its already set fall debut on Thursday, September 22, amidst all the other big fall premieres. It is unclear at this time if the shooting will affect the production, of if the investigation will be conducted in a manner that allows filming to continue uninterrupted.
According to a post on Twitter of a sign in the area where the shooting occurred, Law & Order: Organized Crime was set to begin filming at 6:00 a.m. The picture's background features several people standing around with camera tripods, but it's unclear if those are L&O crew members, or if they're local TV news journalists reporting on the shooting death.
Law & Order: Organized Crime star Christopher Meloni recently made headlines for his nude ad promoting Peloton exercise bikes, which was produced by Ryan Reynolds' Maximum Effort. The NBC drama is potentially set to join the flagship series and its SVU spinoff for a three-way crossover event in the fall, but that has yet to be confirmed.
We here at CinemaBlend send our thoughts and condolences to the friends and family of the late crew member during their time of mourning.
