Cops: Man slain in Uniondale tried to avoid shooters

A 27-year-old Queens man killed at a house party in Uniondale Sunday had tried to avoid the partygoers in the backyard who shot him before they sought him out, Nassau police said.

Two other people were also shot and injured in the neighborhood in shootings Sunday morning, police said.

The homicide victim, who lived in St. Albans but whose name was not made public by police, showed up to the birthday party on Southern Parkway on Saturday night and "found out there were people in the rear yard who he did not care to associate with," said police spokesman Det. Lt. Kevin Smith.

At some point, assailants approached the victim and there were "shots fired in his direction," Smith said. The man, who had been shot in the face, staggered out of the house and collapsed by the nearby Northern Parkway School around 12:51 a.m., authorities said.

In the next 30 to 45 minutes, police officers responded to two more reports of young men wounded by gunfire in the neighborhood, police said. A Baldwin man, 23, had been shot in the buttocks, and a Uniondale teen, 17, was shot in the left hip or upper leg, officials said. Both were taken to Nassau University Medical Center. Police declined to identify the victims.

Detectives are "investigating whether there was a series of shots or an exchange of shots," as well as "possible gang overtones," Smith said. Authorities also are trying to determine whether the injured men had attended the party, though their cooperation has been "limited at this point," Smith said.

Marcus Brown of Hempstead, a partygoer, said the shooting victim fell to the ground next to Brown's car.

"I heard one bang, didn't know what it was," Brown said. "The whole crowd scattered. When we came out in front, Nassau County [police] was outside in the street with guns drawn."

Police ask anyone with information about the shooting to call 800-244-TIPS. Calls will be confidential, police said.