Jewish wedding for a million with shooting: the bride is suing a relative

The story of the luxurious wedding of a couple from Brighton Beach, Anna Goldshmidt, a native of Ukraine, and Ilan Stratievsky, who grew up in Brighton, continued. The gala celebration was supposed to take place last June in one of the most expensive hotels in New York, Waldorf Astoria, but at the very beginning it was disrupted by the groom's cousin Vladimir Gotlibovsky - he accidentally opened fire from his pistol, which was in his pocket. The bullet ricocheted and wounded four guests. Naturally, the reception was cancelled.

Now the couple sued Vladimir Gotlibovsky, who lives in Brooklyn, Anna Goldschmidt told reporters nypost.com. The newlyweds estimated the damage from the failed reception at a million dollars - this is exactly the amount, according to them, that the preparation of the celebration cost.

“All my life I wanted to get married at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. I've always loved this place. After all, this is the largest hall in New York,” says Anna Goldschmidt.

The celebration was planned on a grand scale. For the main event in her life, the bride made a dress that cost her $ 40 thousand. The newlyweds removed the entire 35-th floor of the hotel. The first wedding night they had to spend in a room of more than 200 square meters, in which all US presidents stayed since the time of Herbert Hoover.

The famous Russian singer Kristina Orbakaite was supposed to perform at the party. However, after a shot was fired in a fashionable hotel, the frightened Orbakaite never left her room, suspecting that she had found herself in a showdown between the “Russian” mafia.

As it turned out during the investigation, Vladimir Gotlibovsky came to the luxurious wedding of his relatives with a pistol. At the very beginning of the reception, he reached into his pocket to take out his banquet card - and the next moment a shot rang out. The bullet hit the floor and ricocheted straight into the head of 55-year-old guest Maja Rafailovich. Fortunately, the wound turned out to be tangential. Three more people received various injuries. They were wounded in the legs by shards of glass, marble and tiles. This is how groom Ilan Stratievsky remembers those events.

“At first I thought the chandelier had fallen. But then a few seconds later I saw people screaming. One lady started screaming that she was bleeding. We called an ambulance and panic began,” says Stratievsky.

During the arrest, Vladimir Gotlibovsky said that he had a license for a pistol, which was confirmed later. He was arrested, the license was taken away and later released, but the investigation into this matter continues.

After this incident, the hotel management decided to close the banquet hall and asked the guests to go home.

“I was depressed for the first five months. All I have left are the wedding photos from Central Park. But we will never have a wedding film from the celebration. This is very bad and unpleasant,” Goldschmidt complained.

She says that the relatives of the groom have still not apologized for the triumph of which she had dreamed of all her life because of their fault.

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