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More teens suspected in NYC shootings even as gun violence drops, city data shows
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Brittany Kriegstein
Published Apr 28, 2026
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Brittany Kriegstein / Gothamist
By
Brittany Kriegstein
Published Apr 28, 2026
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Three masked teenage boys got together on a quiet residential street in Edenwald on a chilly afternoon in January. At 15 and 16 years old, they could not legally vote, drive or buy alcohol. Yet two of them had guns, according to Bronx prosecutors.
Several shots rang out just after 5:30 p.m., striking 19-year-old Jahmir Turner, prosecutors said. He died at Jacobi Hospital, and police arrested the three teens the following day. They were each charged with murder, manslaughter and criminal weapons possession. One of them has so far pleaded not guilty, court records show.
Attorneys for the other two were not immediately reachable for comment.
Police have arrested at least 10 more teens for seven fatal shootings since Turner’s death, according to NYPD data analyzed by Gothamist. At least three of those teens were younger than 18 and suspected in high-profile incidents, including the Feb. 11 murder of 16-year-old Bronx football star Christopher Redding.
NYPD data shows the number of young people charged or identified in connection with shootings nearly doubled from 2020 to 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and hasn’t dipped back down below 100 any year since.
The increase in suspects under 18 has come even as the overall number of young people shot in the city has dropped from a six-year peak of more than 150 in 2022, according to the data. Among minors, there were 120 shooting victims and 112 suspects last year.
Public safety experts said it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what is causing more young people to participate in shootings. Even as city officials touted record-low shootings and homicides last year, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and Mayor Zohran Mamdani said youth violence had risen as a share of total violent crime, with both victims and perpetrators under 18 reaching their highest percentages since tracking began in 2018.
Tisch said in a statement that to address youth violence, police are focusing patrols along routes that kids take to and from school. Officers’ increased presence has brought down crime through deterrence, not arrests, officials said.
Some experts said one reason for the reported rise in younger shooters is a lack of legislative power to deter minors from carrying guns before they are charged with more serious crimes.
Peter Moskos, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who specializes in crime prevention and policing, said he thinks New York’s Raise the Age law has contributed to the increase in young people suspected of gun violence. The measure, which was passed in 2017 and implemented in 2018, was intended to divert more 16- and 17-year-olds accused of misdemeanors, non-violent felonies and some violent felonies to family court, and keep them out of adult jails and prisons.
Some public safety officials have argued that teens of those ages are not adequately penalized for crimes like gun possession, and therefore are more likely to feel emboldened to participate in shootings.
“ I would argue it's good for the kid with a gun to be punished mildly so they stop doing it, as opposed to getting them for murder when they’re 18,” Moskos said. “There's also just the public safety idea and the message it sends that, ‘Oh, you got caught with a gun and you're home tonight. Now you're the life of the party with a good story.’”
Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark has long been outspoken about changing elements of Raise the Age, especially when it comes to gun possession, which she said almost always lands a younger teen in family court.
Clark said her office is legally not allowed to know how family court cases play out, making it harder for prosecutors to know how to steer those young people away from violence.
“ We didn't necessarily have to treat 16-year-olds as adults, but I think that the way [the law] was written, it still hinders us from it being the best that it could be,” Clark told Gothamist in a phone interview. “ What I've seen is that I'm losing a generation of young people to this violence.”
The Bronx so far this year has experienced a disproportionate number of fatal shootings allegedly perpetrated by young people, according to police data compiled by Gothamist. Eight of the 13 teens arrested in connection with those crimes shot someone in that borough, police said.
While Clark said the arrest numbers may also indicate Bronx detectives are closing more homicide cases than detectives in other boroughs are doing, she said prosecution cannot be the only solution to youth gun violence.
She said her office created a Youth Advisory Council, made up of about 30 local teens who meet with her several times a year to discuss what resources they need in their neighborhoods. The DA added that she frequently convenes with the city Department of Education and the Administration for Children’s Services to work on violence prevention initiatives.
For young people going through the court system, Clark said she established a Youth Justice Bureau staffed by assistant DAs who specialize in adolescent brain development and work to connect those defendants with diversion programs where appropriate.
“ Everybody plays a role in this, and until we all understand that and work together, we're gonna continue to see kids either being offenders or victims of crime,” she said.
Tisch has made preventing youth violence around schools a priority, implementing Youth Safety Zones at the start of the 2025 school year to focus additional officers on high-risk areas like bus stops and commuting routes.
The NYPD said the effort is working: Youth-related crime in these zones has fallen by nearly half since September 2025, with shooting incidents and victims each down by about 55% during deployment hours.
Officials said the impact has been the strongest in the Bronx zones, where shootings dropped nearly 75%, while Brooklyn North experienced a decline of more than 40%.
But experts said violent crime tends to increase in warmer weather, as more people — including youth — gather outdoors. A recent spate of teen shooting deaths this year has only underscored concerns about violence affecting the city’s young people.
Gunfire in a Queens park on April 16 shattered what authorities said was a planned water fight among dozens of teens on a balmy evening. When the crowd parted, 15-year-old Jaden Pierre was in critical condition, with a gunshot wound to his chest, officials said.
He later died at a local hospital. Video shared on social media showed him being brutally beaten before the shooting. Police later charged 18-year-old Zahir Davis with murder in Pierre’s death.
“This senseless act of gun violence will not go unanswered,” Queens DA Melinda Katz said in a statement Saturday, noting the shooting was unprovoked.
Davis faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison if convicted on the top charge, prosecutors said. His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Just over a week after Pierre’s killing, 16-year-old Marquise Byfield was fatally shot inside an East New York bodega, according to police. The NYPD said it has not yet made any arrests in the case, but noted Byfield was involved in an altercation with a suspect before he was killed.
“No teenager in New York City should ever fall victim to gun violence, and no family should ever have to endure this kind of pain,” Mamdani said after Byfield’s killing, in a statement Saturday. “Every shooting death is a tragedy, and it is especially heartbreaking when a young life is taken far too soon.”
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new york city
public safety
Brittany Kriegstein
Brittany Kriegstein covers all breaking news around New York City, with a focus on crime and gun violence. Got a tip? Email Brittany at [email protected].
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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