NEW YORK – As New York City tries to recover from the pandemic, there is another urgent epidemic that residents say needs to be addressed: gun violence.
So far this year, 448 gun-related incidents have been reported in the five boroughs that affected 501 victims, according to NYPD statistics. That nearly doubled the number of incidents reported at the same time last year, but it was also when the city spent nearly two months on the COVID-19 shutdown. In 2019, when overall crime hit an all-time low in all five boroughs, there were a total of 766 reported shootings.
This weekend alone, there were 25 separate incidents with 30 victims, including three bystanders who were shot in Times Square on Saturday.
So far, no arrests have been made, but two senior NYPD officials identified Farrakhan Muhammad as the person of interest in the shooting. Video captured the person of interest walking away from the scene, the Police Department said in Twitter.
Police are still looking for the suspect who tried to shoot his brother after an argument near West 44th Street and Seventh Avenue, but instead wound up wounding a tourist, a 4-year-old girl from Brooklyn and a 43-year-old woman from New Jersey.
Wendy Magrinat, a 23-year-old Rhode Island resident who was on a Mother’s Day trip to New York City, told NBC New York it was a “scary” moment, but now she’s back. at home and recovering.
Magrinat said he will likely have a bullet lodged in his leg for the rest of his life. “The doctors said they would not do any surgery or remove the bullet, just because it would do more damage,” he said.
A new video of the chaos shows witnesses frantically trying to point out canine cops after bystanders were injured. The 4-year-old girl who was shot in the foot was simply shopping for toys with her family when she was beaten, police said.
Officer Alyssa Vogel was seen running to safety with the girl in her arms. She told the New York Post that she is “the strongest girl I’ve ever seen in my life,” adding that she didn’t cry once, except when they were putting the tourniquet on her.
Mayor Bill de Blasio called the shooting “senseless violence” and promised that those responsible would be brought to justice. “The flood of illegal weapons in our city must stop,” the mayor said on Twitter.
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