Bouncer Killed In Shooting Outside East Village Bar

Yesterday, the shooting outside East Village bar Forbidden City, on Avenue A near 13th Street, that left its bouncer dead and two other men injured was apparently spurred from a fight, which bouncer Eric Pagan, 42, had been trying to break up. Pagan actually had the night off but Forbidden City's manager Ron Ancheta said he usually checked in. Ancheta told the Times that when he heard the gunfire around 4:25 a.m., he rushed out, "[Pagan] was laying right in the middle of the street, face up. There were so many witnesses, probably around 10 to 15 people surrounding his body."

According to the Post, Pagan had been helping a customer find his keys outside the bar:

A dispute began as several of the men search ing for the keys were grazed by a passing white Nissan Quest, the sources said. The men on the street angrily yelled something at the driver, prompting him to stop and his passengers -- three men and a woman -- to jump out and start attacking them.

A witness, who asked not to be identified, said Pagan was trying to break up the fight when one of the men returned to the van, grabbed a gun and began firing.

"The bouncer tried to separate everybody," the witness said. "The one guy [from the van] grabbed his girl, put her in the car, and he grabbed his gun [and] shot [Pagan] right in the head."

The Post says, "Pagan, who worked as an electrician by day, leaves behind a daughter, 14, and son, 17, whom he adopted after the boy's mother died of cancer." And Pagan's mother told the Times that the gunman "took away a good person. He has to repent, confess his crime and pay for what he took away. His heart will shake until he knows what he did was wrong."