Man killed in Brooklyn lounge mass shooting tried to stop fight, may also have opened fire

Rebecca White, Rocco Parascandola and John Annese, New York Daily News on Aug 17, 2025

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One of the men killed in Sunday’s mass shooting at a Brooklyn lounge was a “peacemaker” trying to break up a fight in the crowded club, a sibling and pal said — but investigators have pegged him as possibly one of the shooters.

Jamel Andre Childs, 35, was initially trying to cool tempers down inside Taste of the City Lounge on Franklin Ave. in Crown Heights, a role he often took when he saw a situation about to turn violent, friend Rajawn Philips said.

“He was a cool dude,” said Philips, 49, who works at a smoke shop next door to the club. “You know when you go to clubs, you got the crowd of knuckleheads? He’s the one on the side, ‘Like, chill the f–k out.’… He’s one of the ones like, ‘Stop that dumb s–t.’ ”

Childs’ brother described him in similar terms.

“He was trying to stop a fight. … That sounds exactly like him,” Richard Childs Jr. said. “Jamel wanted to save the world. He wanted to save everyone.”

Even so, a preliminary investigation shows Childs and a 19-year-old man also killed in the gunfire were among the shooters in the club, police source said.

A 27-year-old man was also killed in the gang-related 3:30 a.m. shooting, which involved as many as four shooters, police said. Nine more people were shot and wounded.

The source said one of the victims is believed to be a member of the Folk Nation gang.

“I was not there and do not believe him to be one of the shooters,” Childs’ brother told the Daily News.

Childs had been free on parole since 2023, after he was sentenced to nearly eight years in prison for a 2018 robbery conviction in Brooklyn, records show.

Philips said the violence started as a two-on-two fight between people in two larger groups at the club.

“Those are people that have been beefing with each other for a while,” he said.

“They said that when the argument first happened, (Childs) was the one that stopped it. They kept partying. Then it jumped off,” Philips said. “I think two people were still not seeing eye to eye and they ended up jumping off.”

Just a few months earlier, in June, Childs and his mom showed up to surprise his young niece at her graduation.

“The family is grieving,” Richard Childs said. “He’s a great brother, great friend.”

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