A baby shower at the Afrika House Banquet Hall on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn turned deadly on the night of December 31, 2016, when 39-year-old Hilario Paulino Cortez Vidals was fatally shot. The celebration reportedly included members of two families involved in a long-simmering, Hatfield-McCoy style feud. An argument earlier in the evening between Cortez Vidals’ teenage son and another person escalated, and around 1:30 a.m. a man who had been at the gathering allegedly returned and fired a single shot from outside.

The bullet pierced a window and struck Cortez Vidals in the head. He was taken to Kings County Hospital and pronounced dead. Investigators questioned numerous witnesses at the hall, but the shooter fled and remained at large.

If anyone at the banquet hall or nearby that night observed someone leave and come back or saw a suspicious vehicle, please come forward with information.