NYC gun violence spikes as summer heat hits the five boroughs: ‘It’s that time of the year’
It’s looking like a long, hot summer already.
Shootings spiked in the Big Apple last week by a whopping 50% compared to the same period last year – and the number of gunshot victims spiked by an even higher margin, NYPD stats show.
The data show that 30 people were struck in two dozen shootings across the five boroughs in the week ending on Sunday, a jump from the 18 gunshot victims in 16 incidents over the same span in 2023.
And that’s just part of a month-long pattern that has seen an uptick in gun violence.
“The summer hasn’t even officially started yet it’s already getting out of hand,” one Brooklyn cop told The Post. “Everyone has a gun and the shooters are getting younger. That’s a bad formula for fighting crime.”
Over the past month, the NYPD has recorded 117 victims in 98 shootings, up from 81 people shot in 74 incidents over the same month in 2023 – a 44% rise in victims and 32% bump in shootings.
“It’s that time of year,” Christopher Herfmann, a former NYPD crime analyst and an assistant professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice specializing in gun violence said Wednesday.
“The weather is getting hotter, kids are getting out of school, more people are taking vacation – all of these things are part of it,” Herrmann said. “It’s just what tends to happen. My guess is you’ll see a couple more shootings today or tomorrow.”
City Hall spokesperson Kayla Mamelak responded to the data by saying Mayor Eric Adams “has been clear that public safety is the prerequisite to prosperity.”
“Following double-digit decreases in shootings in both 2022 and 2023, and with both shooting incidents and the number of shooting victims down citywide so far this year, in addition to overall crime being down, the NYPD is aware and laser focused on addressing the uptick this month,” the spokesperson said.
“Additional resources are being deployed to the impacted precincts. We will not rest until all New Yorkers both are safe and feel safe.”
An NYPD spokesperson also noted summerlike conditions could be a contributing factor while emphasizing crime is down overall.
“While one shooting or one homicide will always be one too many, crime in New York City clearly continues to trend in the right direction,” the spokesperson said.
“Historically, certain crimes such as shootings tend to increase as the warmer summer weather approaches. When summer officially begins next week, the men and women of the NYPD will continue the tireless work they do each day and night to advance public safety and quality of life.”
On Sunday three people were killed and four others wounded in five separate Father’s Day shootings.
Police said a 44-year-old man was shot in the face, a 40-year-old man in the chest and a 37-year-old man struck in the leg in a single shooting in Inwood on Sunday night – with the older two dying.
That came about a half hour after Tyreek Ogarro, 32, was shot multiple times at the Brevoort Houses public housing complex in Bedford-Stuyvesant and later died at Kings County Hospital, cops said.
On Saturday night, two people were shot inside Livonia Park in Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood – a 53-year-old woman hit in the leg and torso and a man, 70, hit in the left leg, according to police.
It was one of five shootings during the course of the day.
On June 11, an armed bystander shot a 39-year-old man who was menacing street food vendors with a knife in Midtown Manhattan, pulling the gun and firing as the scuffle escalated.
The victim was hit in the leg and survived.
The day before an 84-year-old woman sitting in her walker in East Flatbush was hit by a stray bullet and in her left arm and rushed to the hospital – where she was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
“It’s a miracle,” victim Althea Lawson told The Post from her hospital bed. “I don’t have enough tongue to tell God thanks I’m still here today. Thank God it never hit me in the head!”
Despite the recent spike in gunplay, most major crimes have dipped in the Big Apple over last year, including a nearly 15% dip in murders so far this year compared to 2023.
Police stats show that there were 157 murders reported through Sunday, down from 184 over the same period last year, while burglaries were down nearly 10% and car thefts dropped by 10.5%.
Year-to-date shootings were also down slightly, with 465 victims wounded in 392 incidents through Sunday compared to 494 people hit in 423 shootings over the same period last year.
However, other crimes have crept upward in the past year, including rapes, which are up to 734 from 583 this time last year and robberies, which have risen to 7,505 this year compared to 7,120 at the same time last year – jumps of 7.5% and 5.4%, respectively.
Felony assaults are also up, with 12,950 so far in 2024 and 12,252 at this time in 2023.
The NYPD spokesperson said overall crime is down 2% in 2024 year-to-date, and the dip in homicides means 29 fewer people injured by gunfire and 27 few victims of murder so far. Homicides are also down.
“During the same 28-day period solely focused on by the Post, homicides, in fact, are down another 3.6 percent compared to the same period last year,” the spokesperson said. The NYPD has seized nearly 3,200 illegal guns off the street this year, the spokesperson added.
“This is just one of the ways our city has made considerable progress in reducing crime and violence since the start of this administration, and New Yorkers can count on the NYPD’s ongoing vigilance in every neighborhood,” the spokesperson said. “We will continue to use this momentum to ensure that New York remains the safest big city in the nation.”
