Crime scene, NYPD – Photo: Andrés Correa Guatarasma / Courtesy
Even with the massive police presence after the attack on the New York Subway, the violence did not stop yesterday in the city: 15 people were shot and two of them died within a range of just six hours in the Bronx and Brooklyn.
The fatal victims were a man and a woman, 22 and 23 years old. The wave of shootings began in Brooklyn in broad daylight shortly before 4:30 p.m. on Gates Ave. near Marcy Ave. in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, where three men were injured and hospitalized in stable condition.
Just after 7 p.m. a fifteen-year-old was shot in the leg left onto Laconia Ave. and E. 226th St. in the Edenwald neighborhood of the Bronx. It’s unclear if the teen was the intended target, police said. She was taken to Jacobi Hospital.
Minutes later a 41-year-old man was also shot in the leg on Etna St. off Nichols Ave. in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn.
The first homicide occurred around 7:40 p.m. near the intersection of E. 180th St. and Mohegan Ave. in Crotone (The Bronx), where three assailants fired 10 rounds at three victims before fleeing, a police source said.
A 22-year-old man was shot multiple times and was later pronounced dead at St. Barnabas Medical Center. He was the intended target of the attack, according to the NYPD.
Approximately 20 minutes later, The Bronx added its second homicide of the night: a 23-year-old woman sitting in a parked car was shot in the head at Sheridan Ave. and McClellan St. Paramedics rushed her to Lincoln Hospital but were unable to save her. Police were still trying to determine if she was the gunman’s intended target.
Shortly after, a group of three men and one woman were attacked by three gunmen as they walked down Olinville Ave. near Boston Road in Allerton, The Bronx. One of the 21-year-old victims was reported in critical condition.
So far, this year, the city has seen an 8% increase in shootings and a 9% increase in gun casualties, with 363 people shot in 322 incidents as of Sunday. That’s up from 332 people shot in 297 incidents during the same period last year, DailyNews reported.
The wave of armed violence in the city involves minor and adult gunmen, men and women, and victims of all ages. After the boom in 2020 and 2021 particularly among young gang members and/or victims, 2022 continues with the same trend putting up a great challenge to the new mayor Eric Adams who has encountered obstacles within his own Democratic party in dealing with the crisis.
In its visit to NYC in February after the murder of two young Hispanic police officers, President Joe Biden endorsed Mayor Adams’ plan to curb crime and gun violence. He also launched a national initiative against illegal arms trafficking.