Governor Cuomo's first deputy counsel Carey Gabay, 43, shot in the head in NY

Carey Gabay, first deputy general counsel for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, is in a coma and fighting for his life after being shot in the head on Monday during festivities before an annual parade

An aide to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's administration is in a coma and fighting for life after being shot in the head during the pre-dawn festivities for the annual West Indian Day Parade in Brooklyn, New York on Monday.

Carey Gabay, 43, a first deputy general counsel at the Empire State Development Corp., was walking with his brother around 3:40am when they were caught in the crossfire between two gangs and he was hit with a stray bullet. Gabay was an unintended victim of the exchange, where up to three guns fired more than two dozen shots near the parade route.On Tuesday the lawyer's family said he was in a coma and 'surrounded by his loved ones' at a Brooklyn hospital. 'Our family is thankful for the outpouring of prayers that we've received in the aftermath of this senseless violence,' they said in a statement. 'Carey has always been an inspiration to all of us and he continues to inspire us with his fight for survival.'Cuomo called Gabay 'an outstanding public servant'. 'He's not doing well,' the governor said Tuesday during a visit to Puerto Rico.'This was a beautiful man, a sweet man, a man who was giving back to his community, a gentleman, who was involved in nothing, just walking down the street with his brother, wife pregnant with his first child,' Cuomo said of Gabay earlier  to ABC 7. 'He was the lawyer who rewrote the rent laws that protected so many tenants. It's a reminder that the violence has to stop.'

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Gabay and his brother were walking in the Crown Heights neighborhood around 3:40am, during the pre-dawn festivities for the annual West Indian Day Parade, when he was shot 

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Gabay's wife is expecting their first child together. He was one of four men shot in Brooklyn early Monday morning 

Before he was named first deputy counsel in January, Gabay held the position of assistant counsel and has worked for the governor since 2011. 

Gabay is a graduate of both Harvard College and Harvard Law School. 

Cuomo also said the violence on the streets had to stop. 

'We have to commit ourselves to justice in partnership with the police and in partnership with one another,' he said.