One shooter responsible for wounding three at Glen Cove hotel party, cops say

Investigators looking into the shooting Sunday at an upscale Glen Cove hotel in which three people were shot and wounded said they are trying to identify a single shooter, a man.

Glen Cove Police Department spokesman Det. Lt. John Nagle said officers responded to a shots-fired call at The Mansion at Glen Cove just after 5 p.m. Sunday and said the three victims, two partygoers and a security guard, were taken to a hospital for treatment. None of the injuries were life-threatening, he said. 

On Monday, Nagle said: "We're scouring through all investigative leads, right now. And we're hoping to make strides in identifying the shooter."

In a 5 p.m. Monday interview, he said he had no updates on the investigation. 

Nagle said hotel management, including the property owner, as well as guests attending the gathering have all been "cooperative" with investigators. He said police still have not recovered the weapon used in the shooting.

"Since we have not recovered the gun I cannot speculate on the gun or the caliber of gun used," Nagle said.

Nagle said Sunday that “there was some type of fight” and that one of the security guards working the event tried to escort a person out of the party and shots were fired — resulting in the injuries.

The shooting happened inside the mansion near the lobby, he said. 

There were about 150 to 200 people at a “Big Fendi Celebrity Pool Party” at The Mansion, Nagle said Sunday. The pool party was advertised on the internet, officials said. 

Glen Cove Mayor Pamela Panzenbeck was at the scene on Sunday evening and said the incident has shaken her. 

“This wasn’t something we ever expect. We go to high school reunions, weddings and fundraisers and all kinds of things here,” she said. “These were not Glen Cove people that were here today, so we have to look into how they got here and how this happened.”

In a later interview, she said that Glen Cove police "pretty much recognize or know a lot of the residents … They said it wasn't people that we recognize from our community."

Councilwoman Marsha Silverman said the party should have had “an event permit for an outside event and an amplified music permit … My understanding is that neither was issued for (Sunday’s) event. They were applied for and neither was issued.”

No one at the hotel was available for comment Monday. The party promoter could not be reached. 

Panzenbeck said city leadership had scheduled a midweek interview with the venue's owner.

Silverman said city officials would “look holistically at what went on here.” That could mean new regulations to minimize the risk of another shooting, but should not discourage properly permitted events in the future, she said, citing a recent Morgan Park Summer Music Festival concert that drew a “huge” crowd and was “100% peaceful.”

The Mansion at Glen Cove, a brick Georgian mansion surrounded by a 55-acre estate, was built in 1910 for Standard Oil executive John Teele Pratt and his wife Ruth Baker Pratt, the first woman elected to Congress from New York.

Newsday reported that Wei Wang, a hotel developer from New Jersey, bought the site in 2014 for $7.5 million through a limited liability company, Glen Cove Mansion Holding, paying an additional $2.5 million for "personal property" and other assets.

On Monday, a woman who answered a phone number associated with Glen Cove Mansion Development said "We will have someone to call … Right now we are not saying anything." 

Wang could not be reached. Robert Litt, a Rockville Centre lawyer who represented Wang in 2015, did not respond to a request for comment.