At least eight people were shot, four of them children, when a gunman attacked a family barbecue in Brooklyn’s Coney Island on the evening of 4 July. The shooting occurred around 10:35 p.m. local time as a family gathered in the courtyard of an apartment building a block from the famed boardwalk, where thousands had earlier watched the Independence Day fireworks, according to New York police.

The injured include boys aged 6, 7, 12 and 14, two women aged 21 and 25, and two men aged 33 and 37, authorities said. A 21-year-old woman shot in the chest is in critical condition; the other seven victims are stable with wounds to the abdomen, legs and shoulder. All were transported to nearby hospitals, medical sources confirmed.

A lone attacker, dressed in black with a ski mask, approached a fence and fired multiple rounds before fleeing on foot, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters. Officers recovered a TEC-9 pistol with an extended magazine and ten spent cartridge cases at the scene. No arrests have been made, and the number of assailants remains uncertain. Police found no evidence of a prior disturbance but are examining a possible link to a gang-related homicide on the same block a week earlier.

The shooting was the most serious in a wave of holiday violence across New York City that left at least 12 people wounded from Queens to the Bronx, according to local authorities. In a separate incident hours later, a police detective was shot in his bulletproof vest in an unprovoked attack in Crown Heights; a suspect was arrested. As of Sunday, the motive for the Coney Island attack was unknown and the investigation continued with no suspect in custody.