Bullets flew at a Queens sports bar early Saturday, killing a 34-year-old man despite the actions of his desperate brother, who tried to carry his mortally wounded sibling to the hospital, police said.
The shooting inside the El Catracho sports bar in Hollis was the fourth bloody attack to take place at a city nightspot in a week.
Denis Nunez was with his brother inside the bar on Jamaica Ave. near 184th Place when a fight broke out at around 1:45 a.m., cops said.
The victim had just stepped out of the bar when someone from inside opened fire, hitting him in the stomach and left shoulder.
“I don’t really know what happened because I was inside,” Nunez’s brother, who wished not to be named, told the Daily News. “He was outside already and somebody shoot him from inside the bar to outside.”
On Saturday, the surviving brother still had Nunez’s blood on his shirt. His face was scratched and his arm was bandaged.
“I tried to carry (him) to the hospital. That’s why a lot of blood on me,” he said. “I stopped because I saw the ambulance come. Then they took him from there and they (didn’t) let me go with him to the hospital.”
EMS rushed Nunez to Jamaica Hospital, but he could not be saved.
The gunman ran off and was still being sought by authorities Saturday.
Nunez and his brother are from Honduras. The two siblings lived together about 2 miles from the bar.
“We were happy,” he told the News as NYPD detectives showed up to escort him to a local precinct for further questioning. “I don’t really know right now what’s going on.”
Cops said bullets hit Nunez in the stomach and left shoulder. EMS rushed him to Jamaica Hospital, but he could not be saved. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
Cops were scouring the area looking for surveillance video that could help them figure out what sparked the shooting and identify the gunman. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
Police guard this silver Toyota Tundra pickup truck seen here in the middle of Jamaica Avenue about one block west of El Catracho on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
Cops said bullets hit Nunez in the stomach and left shoulder. EMS rushed him to Jamaica Hospital, but he could not be saved. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
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Cops said bullets hit Nunez in the stomach and left shoulder. EMS rushed him to Jamaica Hospital, but he could not be saved. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
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Cops were scouring the area looking for surveillance video that could help them figure out what sparked the shooting and identify the gunman.
Crime scene investigators found specs of blood on a Toyota Tundra about a block from the scene, officials said.
Saturday’s murder was the third shooting to take place in a city bar or nightclub in the last week.
Two shootings in which three people were wounded as well as a stabbing occurred within a three-hour span on Feb. 14, cops said.
During one of the shootings, Sheriff Shittu, a 30-year-old aspiring fashion designer, was fatally shot in the head following a tussle with a drunk patron who had groped his girlfriend earlier in the night. At one point before the shooting, the two also argued over the line for the bathroom.
The gunman opened fire as staffers tried to escort him out of the Quilox Restaurant and Lounge in East Flatbush around 4:25 a.m. that Saturday, cops said.
Shittu was accompanied to the club by his younger brother, Fawaz Shittu, to celebrate a friend’s birthday a day before their mother was due to arrive for a visit from their native Nigeria.
“I was screaming his name,” Fawaz said, recalling the aftermath of the shooting that killed his brother. “I was trying to wake him up.”
Sheriff’s killer ran off and remained at large Saturday.
Less than three hours earlier, a fight broke out inside Tulum Brooklyn, a late-night restaurant and lounge in Bedford-Stuyvesant. During the brawl, a 23-year-old man was stabbed in the armpit with a sharp object, cops said.
The nightspot was hosting its annual “Pink Party” at the time the stabbing occurred.
Just before 2 a.m. that day, a 36-year-old man was shot in the stomach and a 38-year-old man was shot once in each leg during a clash inside El Palenque Hall in Crotona Park East in the Bronx.
Both men were taken to area hospitals with minor injuries, cops said.
The NYPD said 2025 was the city’s safest year since the department began keeping modern-day crime stats in 1994, with a 20% drop in homicides and a 24% drop in shootings.
