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Police arrest a Brooklyn rapper in fatal shooting at T.I. concert in New York

One person was killed and three wounded in a shooting at Irving Plaza, near Manhattan's Union Square, where rapper T.I. was to perform Wednesday night.
(Dana Schimmel / Associated Press)
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Police say they've arrested a Brooklyn rapper in connection with a deadly shooting at a New York City hip-hop concert. 

Roland Collins, 30, was arrested Thursday on weapons, menacing and reckless-endangerment charges. They say more charges are possible. 

The Brooklyn-based performer goes by the stage name Troy Ave. He was also shot in the leg Wednesday night. 

Police identified the slain man as Ronald McPhatter. Relatives say he worked as a bodyguard for Collins. 

It wasn't immediately clear if Collins had an attorney who could comment on the charges. A message left at a number listed for him hasn't been returned. 

A dispute that started on an upper floor of the Manhattan venue traveled down to a second-floor balcony VIP area where shots rang out Wednesday night, police said. 

The shooting around 10:15 p.m. at Irving Plaza near Union Square sent concertgoers scrambling for the nearest exits, police said.

Witnesses described a frantic, frightening scene. 

Liv Hoffman, 19, was in the balcony VIP area to the left of the stage when the shooting happened. She said there had been some kind of argument between two groups of people before the shooting. A girl she had been talking to was one of the victims. 

“The girl next to me was shot point blank, and men picked her up and carried her out,” Hoffman, still shaken by the events that unfolded right in front of her, told the Associated Press. “For two to three minutes we still heard firing, still heard shots, we were clutching each other making sure no one was getting hit.” 

Video taken inside the venue showed concertgoers rushing to the sides, trying to leave the area, as a group of people tended to a person on the floor. 

“I ran out, just trying to look for my friends, just trying to see if everyone was OK. Everyone was hysterical,” Hoffman said. 

The girl next to me was shot point blank, and men picked her up and carried her out.

— Live Hoffman, 19

Investigators described the shooting as particularly brazen: There were nearly 1,000 people in the concert hall and at least one of the victims, Christopher Vinson, 34, was shot in the chest on the venue's ground level after a bullet traveled through the floor, said Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce. 

McPhatter, 33, was found near the bar of the VIP area with a fatal gunshot wound to the stomach, Boyce said. 

McPhatter's brother, Shanduke McPhatter, runs an antiviolence group called Gangstas Making Astronomical Community Changes and was expected to speak publicly later Thursday. 

Brooklyn-based rapper Roland Collins, 30, who goes by the stage name Troy Ave, was shot in the leg, as was Maggie Heckstall, 26, who investigators don't believe was involved in the fight, authorities said. 

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Elijah Rodriguez was in the VIP area by the stage and said that T.I. was supposed to go on at 9 or 9:30 p.m., but “he never showed up.” 

Aubry said T.I. was in the building, but performers Maino and Uncle Murda were on stage at the time of the shooting. 

“It was scary to deal with. When I got outside, like literally across the street, there were a few girls having, like, panic attacks. One girl thought she saw someone get shot in front of her,” Rodriguez said. 

Police said metal detectors were set up at Irving Plaza, a 1,025-person ballroom-style music venue, but witnesses said security getting into the concert was lax. 

Representatives for T.I., whose real name is Clifford Joseph Harris Jr., said they were referring all questions about the shooting to police. 

The shooting is the third incident in a decade involving gunfire during or after a concert where T.I. was to perform. 

A member of the rapper's entourage was killed and three others were injured in a gun battle following a post-concert party near Cincinnati in 2006. Last March, two people were shot and injured in a Charlotte, N.C., nightclub where he was to perform. 

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UPDATES:

4:09 p.m.: This story has been updated with information regarding an arrest in the shooting.

1:35 p.m.: This story has been updated with names of the shooting victims.

9:03 a.m.: This story was updated with the latest from police.

May 26, 2:58 a.m.: Updated with quotes.

10:49 p.m.: Updated with details.

9:26 p.m.: This story was updated throughout with details.

9:07 p.m.: This story was updated with a death. 

This story was originally published at 8:22 p.m. on Wednesday, May 25, 2016.

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