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The incident unfolded around 6 p.m., Sunday, June 27.
Long Beach Police Department monitored what is referred to as a “sunset party” which took place in the area of Edwards Boulevard and the Ocean Beach Park in Long Beach.
"This was a planned, informal event administered on social media that the police department was prepared and staffed for," said Long Beach PD Sgt. Brett Curtis.
The “sunset party” consisted of large groups of students who have recently graduated from numerous area high schools which included Baldwin High School, Freeport High School, Hempstead High School, Uniondale High School, and Valley Stream High School. In addition, students from high schools in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens also attended the event.
There was no reported criminal activity during the event and the attendees were cooperative. The number of attendees, at its largest, was approximately 2,500 persons, Curtis said.
At approximately 11 p.m., the Long Beach Police Department began closing the Ocean Beach Park and the Boardwalk. At around 12:10 a.m. Sunday, June 28, as the crowd was mostly dispersed and thinning, several Long Beach Police officers heard numerous gunshots being fired in the vicinity of West Broadway and West Penn Street.
"At this time, officers quickly ran toward the area where they heard the gunshots being fired and observed four males in the vicinity of 25 West Broadway," he said.
The four were stopped by officers, three complied.
A fourth, 18-year-old Deandre Oates from Hempstead, was observed by officers holding a bulky item in his waistband. At this point, Oates began to flee the area jumping over a chain-linked fence, police said.
Officers pursued Oates and spotted Oates throw an object in a nearby yard.
Officers discovered that the object Oates threw was a loaded firearm with a defaced serial number.
Oates was arrested and charged with two counts of criminal possession of a firearm and defacement of a firearm.
A second person in the group, 18-year-old Tyreek Williams, also of Hempstead, was arrested for an active arrest warrant.
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