Three Iranian musicians - including two members of a band called The Yellow Dogs (pictured above) - were killed in New York's Brooklyn district yesterday, with police reporting the gunman was a fellow musician.

According to BBC, police believe that Ali Akbar Mahammadi Rafie shot dead three fellow Iranians before killing himself. One other person was shot in the arm as one of Rafie's former bandmates attempted to disarm the shooter.

Rafie had recently been kicked out of the Free Keys, and, in the words of New York police, "was upset that he wasn't in the band anymore". The Yellow Dogs' manager states that there had been a "petty conflict" between Rafie and the band, but they hadn't spoken for months. He explains "there was a decision not to be around each other. They were never that close to begin with. We thought it was all behind us."

The victims have been named as Yellow Dogs drummer Arash Farazmand and his brother and band guitarist Soroush Farazmand. Ali Eskandarian was the third musician killed in the attack, with some reports suggesting he had been acting as Yellow Dogs' singer over the last year. The two brothers were granted political asylum in the US last year.

The surviving Yellow Dogs members confirmed the news on their social media profiles:

From Koory and Obaash: still in shock, we lost 3 of our brothers, Soroush Farazmand, Arash Farazmand and Ali Eskandarian, Rest In Peace

— The Yellow Dogs (@YellowDogsband) November 12, 2013

The Yellow Dogs started in Tehran, although like several other Iranian counter culture artists were forced to flee the country. At the time of the shooting they were based in Brooklyn. They came to international prominence in 2009 after featuring in the documentary No One Knows About Persian Cats, which looks at the Iranian underground music scene. You can see a video of the band performing their song New Century in the film below:

Photo source: Yellow Dogs, Facebook