Pride was mostly crime-free — with one butt; Man shot in rear near park

BY THE VILLAGE SUN | Pride was mostly fun and something to be proud about in Greenwich Village on Sunday — but there were a few incidents, according to police.

Worst of all, early the following morning a man was shot on tony lower Fifth Avenue just steps from Washington Square Park.

The New York Post posted videos of some disturbing brawls in the historic, landmark park — with throngs of onlookers screaming and hoisting their phones to record the action so they could post it on social media — perhaps better to call it “antisocial” media. It may have been, though, that no one filed any actual police complaints against anyone in these fights.

Deputy Inspector Jason Zeikel, who calls the Pride March and the whole day surrounding it the annual “Super Bowl” of policing for the 6th Precinct, said things at times admittedly got a bit chippy in the square.

“There were definitely some fights that broke out in the park,” he said. “One person did get cut — the right finger — nobody was stabbed. … We did have an individual who was shot later in the vicinity of Eighth Street and Fifth Avenue…shot in the buttocks.”

Zeikel said the update on the shooting victim’s condition was that he was “doing O.K.”

A Police Department spokesperson also provided details about the incident. He said it occurred at Ninth Street and Fifth Avenue a few minutes after 2 a.m. Responding cops found the victim, a 20-year-old male, with a gunshot wound to the buttocks and a gunshot wound to the right hand. The victim was removed to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition.

The spokesperson said there were no other notable incidents to report during Pride as far as police were concerned.