Crime and Courts

Weekly NYC Shootings Soar 127% Over Last Year, NYPD Data Shows

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New York City shootings over the last seven days skyrocketed by more than 127% compared with the same time period in 2019, from just 26 last year to 59 in 2020, according to NYPD data obtained by News 4.

Since Sunday night until early Monday morning, there have been at least five shooting incidents with five victims, including one fatal, according to preliminary police data. Two were in the Bronx, two were in Brooklyn and one was in Queens. Police say 17-year-old Brandon Hendricks was killed before midnight Monday on Davidson Avenue.

On Saturday, a man and a woman were shot dead in broad daylight by a gunman armed with an AR-15.

Police identified the suspect as Charles Hernandez, 47, and say he wore a blonde wig as he allegedly gunned down Chioteke Thompson, 23, and Stephanie Perkins, 39.

Last week, there were 55 shootings compared to just 12 during the same period last year to 55 in 2020, NYPD data says.

A total of 74 people were wounded in the 55 shootings, at least 19 of them injured in more than a dozen shootings across the five boroughs on Saturday alone.

Over the weekend, police arrested two suspects in connection with shootings last week that left a woman dead and injured a 7-year-old girl.

The rise in shootings has exceeded a troubling trend that started earlier this year but there has been no clear reason why the number has skyrocketed. The increase comes on the heels of NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea disbanding an anti-crime plainclothes unit that had focused on stopping people and searching for guns.

Shea said the “stop, question, and frisk” a tactic employed by the anti-crime unit was not the answer and activists say it unfairly targets Black and Hispanic communities.

Two people are dead after a gunman opened fire in East New York shortly after 12 p.m. Saturday. Ida Siegal reports.
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