Sheriffs of New York City broke up an indoor wedding reception with about 300 people in Queens late Friday evening, officials said.
Just before midnight, deputies were notified by an anonymous complaint about a social distance violation at the catering hall Royal Elite Palace, where officers were “entered into large groups of locals,” officials told NBC New York.
On arrival, deputies found 284 guests inside the venue in violation of state and city coronavirus bans, the NYC sheriff’s office said in a tweet.
According to NBC New York, the wedding had live music and food and alcohol were served without following social distance guidelines.
Videos and photos posted on social media on Friday night and tagged on location, show a crowded room full of people going to a party without facial ings. NBC News was unable to confirm that the images were of the same group that was present at the scene when police stormed the wedding.
The mob was dispersed by the officers present, and according to the sheriff’s fee, the manager and owner of the hall were charged with several offenses. The manager received four testimonials, and the mayor was given two to the owner for violating the emergency coronavirus criteria.
The wedding venue did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The bust comes amid warnings from Mayor Bill de Blasio and health officials to celebrate the recent surge of Covid-19 clusters in Brooklyn and Queens. Hours before the raid on Friday, health officials warned that new lockdown restrictions could be imposed if the outbreak could not be contained.
“This may be the most ambiguous moment we are facing as we come out of the lockdown,” Health Commissioner Dave Chokshi told a news conference on Friday.
“We will move forward as quickly as the situation changes,” he said. “If this growth continues, it will potentially turn into a city-wide broadcast.”
On Sunday, NYC health officials identified Kovid-19 outbreaks in eight neighborhoods that have risen 3.3 times the citywide average in the past two weeks. Woodside, where the site is located, was not listed in the neighborhood at risk of closure.
Last month, an indoor, about 65-guest wedding in Maine was found to be associated with the deaths of seven people who were not present, and the infection of 176 people who attended the wedding or got the virus in the other hand. The result of someone attending a wedding.
