One man is dead, nine others are wounded in seven shootings citywide overnight as continuing gun violence busted through last year’s totals, surging to 782 today – an 81 percent jump overall of 2019.
There were 15 people shot in 11 different shootings during the entire weekend, with no end in sight to the violence as guns have proliferated in the city and the courts have failed to keep up with crime in the city. Police officials say many who’ve been arrested for weapons and assaults are still walking the streets because of the failure of the grand jury system to indict and jail those responsible for gun violence.
There has also been an ongoing gang war in the city, a proliferation of guns that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic and pent up anger of young people who were confined during the pandemic and now have no school, jobs or internships.
Commissioner Dermot Shea said on NY1 this morning that they are still in the middle of “a complicated perfect storm,” that will “take a lot of hard work – but I do see some glimmers, but we are deep in the middle of it.”
Shea said he is seeing increased gun arrests, cases being closed by detectives, but “we are seeing constants that we can’t get away from and so we have to decide what do we want the city to be.”
Shea expressed concerns about plans to close Rikers Island, saying that while he favors closing the jail, he said, “Looking at the prison population – we don’t want people in jail, but we don’t want them walking the streets either – for policing this is a difficult environment.”
Shea has said in the past that people being arrested for guns were being released because of the failure of the courts to indict and those being arrested for other charges are being released back into the community and are committing more crimes. He added that he didn’t believe shutting down the plain-clothed anti-crime teams have affected crime rates, despite the main function of that unit was to go after guns.
“There must be consequences for carrying guns and committing crimes,” Shea said. “I see Rikers population as just one point and more impactful than transferring anti-crime officers.”
He added that building trust with the community is most important as police are still encountering mistrust from residents who don’t provide details of crimes or have interfered in lawful arrests.
“You can count on officers heroically performing their duties, even during COVID, but now we are facing a real crime dilemma,” Shea said.
He added that many reforms and changes have led to “curtailed enforcement is accurate.” But he said it was more important to build trust and develop relationships with the community – “doing with them, not to them, not going to police the community, but working with them.”
Here’s a rundown of the shootings from August 2-3:
August 2, 11:30 a.m. – A 16-year-old male suffered a graze wound to the back of his head after a dispute at the corner of Pacific Street and Rochester Avenue in Brownsville. Police from the 77th Precinct found the victim wounded at the scene.
EMS rushed the victim to Maimonides Hospital where he was last reported in stable condition.
The suspect was described as a Black man aged between 18-20 and standing 5 feet, 8 inches tall.
“It is quite outrageous over here nowadays. Every week it is a shooting or stabbing. We’ve got to do better. The kid needs jobs or something,” said Bed Stuy resident Beverly Richards.
August 2, 10:54 p.m. – A 17-year-old male was shot in the back while standing in the East River Houses, a NYCHA development in Harlem. Police from PSA 5 found the victim wounded on the ground and EMS rushed him to Cornell Medical Center in stable condition.
Police say the victim has been uncooperative at this time, though police say a violent dispute had occurred prior to the shooting.
August 2, 11:30 p.m. – Three women were shot and wounded at the corner of Bristol Street and Dumont Avenue in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Police from the 73rd Precinct found a 27-year-old woman shot in the right foot, a 16-year-old girl shot in the arm and a 59-year-old woman shot in the left leg.
The 27-year-old was taken to Kings County while the others to Brookdale Hospital in stable condition, their wounds not life-threatening.
The victims told police that they heard shots and suddenly felt the pain from their wounds. They apparently had no warning prior to the shots being fired.
August 2, 11:30 p.m. – A 55-year-old man was shot in the right thigh in front of 663 Buffalo Avenue in Brownsville. Police from the 77th Precinct who had dealt with a 16-year-old shot earlier nearby found spent shells at the scene.
The victim was taken by EMS to Kings County Hospital in stable condition. No description of a suspect was provided.
August 2, 11:47 p.m. – Police from the 48th Precinct responded to a call of a man shot in front of 617 East 179th Street in the Bronx. They found an unidentified man unconscious suffering from gunshot wounds to his chest and arm.
EMS rushed the victim to St. Barnabas Hospital, but he could not be saved. Police were still trying to identify the victim as of this morning.
An hour later, police were reporting shots fired nearby on Arthur Avenue, apparently unrelated to this shooting.
August 3, 1 a.m. – Two people were shot at the corner of East 21st Street and Ditmas Avenue in Flatbush. Police from the 70th Precinct found a 53-year-old woman shot in the leg and a 16-year-old male shot in the arm.
The woman was taken to Kings County Hospital, where she was reported in stable condition, while the 16-year-old was rushed to Maimonides Hospital in stable condition. It was unclear whether both were the target of the shooter, description not immediately available.
Police however believe this was a drive-by shooting, the target not immediately known.
August 3, 5:30 a.m. – A 59-year-old man was shot once in the back at the corner of White Plains Road and Burke Avenue in the Bronx. Police from the 47th Precinct found the victim wounded on the ground and he was rushed to Jacobi Medical Center.
The victim provided few details, though witnesses described an assailant at Black man standing 5 feet, 8 inches tall, wearing a white and purple shirt with the number “23” on it.
There were additional shootings in Brooklyn, Bronx and Queens overnight, though no injuries were reported in about six incidents.
In one of those shootings, police are seeking two young men who fired shots at 7:10 a.m. August 2, at the corner of East 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue.
Police from the 32nd Precinct say the two exited a silver four-door sedan and fired shots at a green Mustang convertible traveling south on Lenox. The shooters fled in the silver vehicle eastbound on East 142nd Street, which is a westbound one-way street, toward 7th Avenue.
No injuries were reported in this shooting.
Anyone with information in regard to any of these shootings is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or on Twitter @NYPDTips. All calls are strictly confidential.
