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11 Killed And At Least 40 Shot Around NYC Since Thursday
By
Sydney Pereira
Published Aug 23, 2020
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Lev Radin/Pacific Press/Shutterstock
By
Sydney Pereira
Published Aug 23, 2020
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At least 11 people were killed in New York City since Thursday, as the number of homicides and shooting incidents remains high compared to last year.
At least eight of the deaths were shootings, and at least one was a stabbing. Across the city between Thursday and Sunday morning, at least 40 people were shot among 31 different incidents during a continued spate of gun violence this summer.
Around 10 p.m. on Thursday, 23-year-old Kendale Hamilton was killed at Flatbush Avenue and Fulton Street during a fight at a McDonald's. Then at about 2 a.m. Friday, three people—ages 60, 36 and 54—were shot in front of 735 East 179th Street in Crotona in the Bronx. Police confirmed that the 60-year-old, Luis Rodriguez, died.
Two-and-a-half hours later, Eliezer Gomez-Ramirez, 44, died of a gunshot wound to the back of his head on Park Avenue near East 178th Street in Tremont.
On Saturday, 25-year-old Priscilla Vasquez was attacked in the South Bronx near Governor Smith Playground around 5:20 a.m. near her home in the Melrose Houses public housing development, according to a release from the NYPD.
When officers arrived, they found her with a gunshot wound to her head. The Daily News reports Vasquez was a mother-of-three—and may not have been the intended person in the attack. In a video released by police, a man in a hooded sweat-shirt wearing all black with a surgical mask ran up towards a group of people that included Vasquez, firing a gun multiple times.
Later Saturday afternoon at about 2 p.m., 20-year-old Fabian Abney was killed inside a Coney Island apartment two blocks from his apartment, the police department said.
Another man, 33-year-old Leonard Carlisle, was fatally shot Saturday about 7:50 p.m. at 207th Street and Hillside Avenue in Queens.
Then at 2 a.m. Sunday, four people were shot—including a 27-year-old who died. Other men ages 36, 35, and 31 were seriously injured as well. Also on Sunday, a 34-year-old was fatally shot in Queens Village around 7 a.m.
There was at least one fatal stabbing over the weekend, where an unhoused 49-year-old was stabbed to death in Midtown at West 38th Street and Ninth Avenue about 9:15 p.m. Saturday. The man, Pedro Diaz, was sleeping in an area with about a dozen other people near a parking lot, according to the Post.
This weekend's gun violence is down slightly compared to last weekend, when 49 people were shot within 72 hours between August 13th to 15th. Between August 20th and August 22, there were 35 shooting victims in 29 incidents. But though it was fewer than the week prior, shootings are still higher during those dates last year, when 11 people were shot over 10 incidents, according to statistics from the NYPD. At least eight people were murdered between Thursday and Saturday, compared to six during those dates last year.
Homicides have risen from 210 through August 22nd of last year to 275 this year. Shooting incidents rose from 507 to 945 over the same time period between 2019 and 2020, according to the preliminary statistics provided by NYPD. The number of victims rose from 598 to 1,159.
Those mourning gun violence victims have ended up fatally shot themselves. The News reports 18-year-old Malcolm Amede was killed near Prospect Park on Wednesday while walking to a memorial for another man, who was killed while walking to a memorial himself.
Gun violence has risen this summer, as it often does during warmer months. But the rise has been particularly notable in the wake of mass unemployment and the health crisis from COVID-19. Arrests within the NYPD are down, too, though Mayor Bill de Blasio has denied there's a police "slowdown." Murders have been rising across various major U.S. cities this summer.
De Blasio has instead blamed the courts system operating differently during the pandemic, a claim without much evidence that courts officials have disputed. Top cops blame criminal justice reforms, like bail reform and early releases from Rikers Island to protect pre-trial inmates or those held for technical violations from COVID-19 when the virus was ravaging NYC jails, though data contradicts the claims.
In response to the shootings, the NY Post reports NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea is amping up weekend staffing, when most shootings happen.
Two-thirds of cops will be added to weekend shifts, working either Sunday to Thursday or Tuesday to Saturday in schedules made official by August 31st, according to the internal memo obtained by the Post.
Violence interrupter groups have also gotten another $10 million in funding this summer—but cure violence staffers are vastly outnumbered by police officers.
Tagged
nypd
shootings
gun violence
Sydney Pereira
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