Angry musician kills three band members...Takes own life

Yellow Dogs

Four Iranian-expatriate musicians living in Brooklyn, New York, have been shot dead in what authorities are labeling a murder-suicide, BBC reports.

Three men, said to be members of a group called the Yellow Dogs, were slain by a fellow musician who later took his own life.

Another man was wounded and taken to hospital.

Police are unsure what prompted the attack early on Monday.

The unnamed suspect is said to be a member of another band.

All involved are said to be Iranian nationals residing in the US.

Police arrived at a Brooklyn townhouse early on Monday to discover a 27-year-old man with a gunshot wound to the chest on the first storey.

A 35-year-old man and another man of undetermined age were found on the second storey, both shot in the head.

A 22-year-old band member wounded in the arm was transported to a local hospital and is said to be in stable condition.

The victims were members of the Yellow Dogs, who described themselves on their Twitter feed as “a Post Punk/Dance Punk band from Tehran/IRAN, living in Brooklyn at the moment”.

The body of the man believed to be the gunman was found on the roof of the building with what authorities described as a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

A rifle was found next to his body, according to media reports.

Contrary to reports in the New York news media, the suspected gunman was not a member of the Yellow Dogs but of another band, reports Bahman Kalbasi of the BBC Persian service.

The Yellow Dogs were well-known among young Iranian expatriates in the US, says our correspondent.

The shooting took place in the Williamsburg neighbourhood of New York’s Brooklyn borough, known for its edgy, creative vibe and community of artists and musicians.

“They seem like really nice guys,” a local man, Martin Greenman, told the New York Daily News.

“They didn’t seem to be in any way to be violent guys. They weren’t rabble rousers or anything like that.”