Shooting At Mavado Concert, Leaves One Man Dead

The U.S. authorities have released a video clip capturing the moments leading up to a fatal shooting in a Newark club last month during a performance by the Jamaican dancehall star Mavado. The gunman remains unidentified and at large.

The Essex County Prosecutor's Office is asking for help from anyone who was in the audience for the May 12 concert at Palladium Ballroom on Branford Place, and who may have been filming the event with a cellphone that night.

Killed was Andre Henry, 35, of Irvington, who was at the packed concert to hear Mavado, whose real name is David Brooks. An altercation is believed to have precipitated the violence. A security guard the club hired was shot in the arm, but survived, said Chief Assistant Prosecutor Tom Fennelly.

The minute-and-a-half-long video clip the prosecutor's office released shows Mavado on stage, as numerous audience members filming the show with their phones, standing only a few feet away from him. Two gunshots ring out, and the person holding the camera momentarily drops to the floor. The video does not show the shooting itself. 

With the camera still filming, audience members can be heard screaming seconds later. "It was mayhem," said Newark Police Detective Emanuel Miranda, who is assigned to the prosecutor's office homicide squad.

Mavado, who was performing with microphone in hand when the shooting happened, was later interviewed by the prosecutor's office and is not considered a suspect. Fans turned out for the show from the tri-state area, and many left before police could interview them, said prosecutor's office homicide Detective Carlos Olmo, who is also handling the case.

Henry was taken to University Hospital in Newark where he died a short time later, Fennelly said.