New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, right, takes part in the 2014 West Indian Day Parade. The event is often marred by violence.(Photo: Mark Lennihan, AP)

A man has been killed and several more injured – one of them reportedly an aide to New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo – during a series of stabbings and shootings in the lead-up to Monday's West Indian Day parade in New York City, according to local media.

The stabbing death and the first shooting happened at Brooklyn's Grand Army Plaza, the destination of the parade, according to the New York Daily News.

The violence broke out at about 2 a.m. near where the separate pre-dawn J'Ouvert march was scheduled to start at 4 a.m., an NYPD spokesman told the newspaper.

One man suffered a gunshot wound and another was stabbed, police said. The two men were rushed to New York Methodist Hospital in the nearby Park Slope neighborhood where the stabbing victim, aged 24, succumbed to his injuries. The shooting victim, 21, was shot in the buttocks, according to WABC-TV. He is expected to recover, according to officials interviewed by WCBS-TV.

Meanwhile, the Cuomo aide, Empire State Development First Deputy Counsel Carey Gabay, 43, was shot in the head in nearby Crown Heights about 3:40 a.m., police told the Daily News and The Associated Press. Emergency responders rushed him to Kings County Hospital in grave condition.

According to the New York Post, Gabay, who was appointed to the governor's administration in January and whose wife is pregnant with their first child, was with his brother and some friends when they walked past an argument and a bullet struck him in the head.

Cuomo expressed his shock after the incident, apparently having been informed Gabay had died, the Post reported.

"Last night, it looks like we lost the life of a beautiful, beautiful individual, a young man who worked for me, 43 years old, was a Harvard-educated lawyer and went to work for the state because he wanted to give back and make a difference," Cuomo said.

"This is a young man who could've gone to any Wall Street firm and make multiples of what he was making for the state," he added.

Less than an hour after Gabay was shot, according to the News, a 39-year-old man was shot in East Flatbush, sources said. He also was taken to Kings County Hospital and was expected to survive, police said.

At about the same time, another man was shot in Crown Heights, police told the newspaper. The 20-year-old victim also was taken to Kings County Hospital. A suspect was arrested and a firearm was recovered at the scene of the shooting, police told the News. Investigations were ongoing in earlier shootings and stabbing, sources said.

The NYPD had dispatched an additional 1,500 police to patrol the overnight parties and march prior to the West Indian Day Parade, the News reported. The annual parade runs along on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn and often is marred by violence.

As many as 2 million people were expected to line the sides of Eastern Parkway for the parade, according to WCBS. The event celebrates Caribbean cultures and features elaborate costumes and scores of dancers.

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