NEW YORK—The man who gunned down three band members of an Iranian rock band Yellow Dogs in their Williamsburg apartment was a member of a different band, according to a friend of the murdered men.
Three band members were killed shortly after midnight on Monday morning by a man welding a .308 caliber semi-automatic weapon with a 20-round magazine. Two were shot on the first floor of the building, and one was shot on the third floor while in bed. The gunman then shot himself to death on the roof of the building.
Another person, a 22 year old, was shot and wounded in the right arm outside the building, before the gunman entered.
A couple hid in a first-floor bathroom while the shooting took place. Although the shooter had shot into the room, they survived and were being interviewed by police, media reports said.
Danny Krug knew the Yellow Dog band members for about two-and-a-half years, since the time he moved to New York from California. After he told them he was a photographer, he started taking portrait pictures of them, some of which can be found on the band’s Facebook page. “I haven’t hung out with them in a few months,” Krug said.
The band members are originally from Iran, where rock music is banned because it is considered anti-Islamic. The band members were apparently seeking asylum.
Krug said reading the early media reports, he couldn’t think who the killer might be, but after talking to friends learned it was a member of another Iranian band that was close to the Yellow Dogs. “I’ve met him. I’ve talked to him,” Krug said.
“When I was first told about this I couldn’t think who it could have been, because all the news reports said it was someone in the band,” Krug said.
Krug described the murderer as a “quiet guy” who didn’t speak English that well.
“I don’t know if he was quiet because he was a quiet guy or because there was a language barrier,” Krug said. “When the other band came to America he came and they started to play around and I guess things weren’t working out as a unit, they asked the guy to leave.”
The names of the murder victims and the killer had not been released to media at the time this report was published, because police had yet to contact their next of kin.
