Fatal South Street Seaport Shooting Sparked By Fight Over Woman

The Atlantica Yacht

Early yesterday morning, a fight broke out on a party yacht at the South Street Seaport and spilled onto land, leading to a man being killed in a parking lot. Now more details have emerged: The ship's co-owner told the Daily News, "I've heard 20 different versions for how this started, and they all start the same, that it was over a woman."

The 1 a.m.-till-5 a.m. party, thrown by a party promoter, aboard the Atlantica Yacht. The ship was supposed to set sail, but the ship's captain Dennis Miano said, "They brought on 555 people. We shut off the engines and said, 'We can't leave. We have to stay on the dock,'" at Pier 17. Indeed—the Atlantica may be a "three level multi million dollar mega yacht," but its website clearly states it's only "USCG certified to carry up to 400 guests." The Post describes how the festivities unraveled: "One overzealous partygoer grabbed a girl for a dance, but she wanted no part of him and smashed him in the head with a bottle, sources said. The spurned lothario slapped her, and his ring left a gash in her head." However, a DJ tells the News, "It happened so fast. It started when a girl was hit in the face with a bottle, and then it turned into a full on brawl."

The dispute grew with more bottles and maybe more being thrown—partygoers apparently "jumped off the boat to the pier to escape" (according to the News) and crew members locked themselves in the kitchen (Post)—and moved to a parking lot. One man apparently ran to a car to get a gun and shot Omar Trent, 31, in the head. It doesn't seem that Trent was the "overzealous partygoer"—the Post says he was actually one of the promoters and had chased someone off the boat. He was pronounced dead at the scene; the News said he had an "extensive rap sheet" including "criminal sale of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance, petty and grand larceny, criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct." His brother said, "He was always helping people. He wanted people to have a good time," while a friend said, "He wasn't a thug on the street."

The police have not found the shooter. And the boat's owners blame the overcrowding on the fact that another boat didn't show up. Phillips said, "We promote good times, not killing. We didn't tell anyone to kill someone."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on August 23, 2009 10:30 AM

Comments [rss]

sexisicilian

"He wasn't a thug on the street.": "extensive rap sheet" including "criminal sale of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance, petty and grand larceny, criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct."

I have a question: What the fuck consitutes a thug for some people?!

NannyState

Take that shit into international waters and give the perps a good shove. Problem solved.

asg749d

it confirms to me the kind of folks who go to those parties...

Mr Mel

It could have become a pirate ship. The hoods could have put a gun to the Skippers head and attacked, robbed and raped people on other ships. They probably would have gotten away with it.

Theodore Wirth

No doubt fueled by alcohol, the only legal form of self-medication.

Armchair_warrior

this is what happens when you put to many thugs in the same boat. :p.

Soggy

What exactly is there to ":P" about? A person is dead for no reason. Learn to use emoticons properly or don't use them at all.

ohgoodgolly

while a friend said, "He wasn't a thug on the street."

You're right - he was a thug on a boat.

That being said, it's just really sad that anyone would bother killing someone over a member of the opposite sex. Grow up, people.

Mr Mel

Is same sex killing still OK.

ohgoodgolly

Oh right. I should have enumerated all the reasons it's wrong to kill someone, not just the reason most relevant to the article. Don't worry, I'm working on a MS Word doc of "reasons why you shouldn't kill people" now, I'll post it when I'm done.

snickerdoodle

People still kill others over women? Nice to see that humans have evolved.

SonnyBobiche

Kieffer Sutherland headbutted someone because they stepped on Brooke Shield's huge feet.

The male instinct to fight over a woman, even if she's not your mate, is overpowering a lot of the time. The killing part is where the guy on the boat went over the line.

militza

'One man apparently ran to a car to get a gun and shot the allegedly Omar Trent.'

what is the hell?

this person actually took time to step out of the chaos to retrieve a gun?

theevilone

He's allegedly Omar Trent? What? Does he have aliases?

militza

meh. late night. brain tired.

Jen Chung

Yeah, brain was tired and had revised the post too many times. Thanks for catching that.

Bluealways

"We promote good times, not killing."

Pfft. Like they're mutually exclusive.

sexisicilian

This story is too funny: they should put that on their flyers & on the side of the ship:)

Bernie Goetz for Mayor

Imagine if this melee would have started while this boat was actually sailing off the coast of the city. I bet atleast 100 of these people would have jumped off the side and drowned to death.

theevilone

Sounds like a good start.

ed_Extinct

There's no other way to drown... death is always on the other side of drowning...

One never feels "alive" after a drowning, at least to the best of my knowledge.

ed_Extinct

this video wasn't meant to be taken seriously:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/56632/saturday-night-live-digital-short-im-on-a-boat but seriously, the video is hilarious!