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."

Two other men, Robert Calbo, 30, and Salvador Moran, 31, were shot (they are now in stable condition). The Daily News says cops are "exploring whether Calbo and Moran fought with a group of men near a car parked on Avenue A, leading their attackers to flag down their gun-toting friend in the white van... One witness said Moran had catcalled a girl who had been standing in front of the bar, perhaps provoking the fight." No arrests have been made and police are looking for surveillance video from the street.

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."

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By Jen Chung in News on August 24, 2009 11:47 AM

Comments [rss]

emilyahn

RIP Eric Pagan

Qraymond

This is horrible.

AYCE

Point blank in the head? That's not just a shooting, it's an execution....by a coward.

Kojak

Men who Catcall women are douchebags of the highest order and have no class.

But sad to hear someone got shot over it if that is indeed the case.

whitecastlerock

Any description of the shooter?

Snoopy

Close all liquor establishments at 1:00 AM. Anyone caught drinking alcoholic beverages after that time should be shot. If they aren't already.

Rocknrope

I don't know about you, but i don't want to live in Boston.

Wza

I think I read one time that most shootings/crime occurs between 3pm and 8pm.

Tower18

This is why so many people hesitate to get involved in street confrontations.

kswissreject

WTF, this is so ridiculous. I really hope they get this fucker that did this. I can't even fathom how anyone would think a gun is an appropriate response. Though I have to admit, it's too bad someone else didn't have a gun and could have shot the asshole right there.

valeriob

Nothing good ever happens after 2am.

drewo

A dispute began as several of the men search ing for the keys were grazed by a passing white Nissan Quest

The automobile: source of evil.

hotstepper

soapbox fail.

drewo

- Incident incited by poor or erratic driving of automobile.

- Killer uses automobile to transport the weapon that would eventually be used to kill.

- Killer escapes by automobile.

It would be a different scenerio if perps did not have use of an automobile.

hotstepper

it was a shooting jackass, so if you want to rally against something choose guns, alcohol, testosterone, etc. the facts are completely up in the air and under investigation, with the usual contradictory witness reports. regardless, shootings happen all the time without an automobile being used.

show some respect. someone died. your "cars are evil" point is stupid. get over it.

drewo

Less likely this scenerio would have played out this way had the perps been on foot. Both concealing a weapon and easy escape would have been much more difficult.

Cars are responsible for killing and mayhem in many ways - direct and, as in this case, as a precipitator of this crime, indirect. As a society we have become blind to this.

Look around, out the window, or at any typical daily news story. The automobile is a source of evil.

http://gothamist.com/2009/08/24/unmarked_police_car_blocks_hydrant.php

"Unmarked Police Car Blocks Hydrant During Fire"

whitecastlerock

This poor man was murdered in the street by some piece of shit. His kids are now orphans-you worry about the fact that a car was involved?