The number of shootings that have taken place in New York City so far this year is nearly double what was reported last year during the same time period.
The New York Post reported Sunday there have been 821 shootings in the city so far in 2020, nearly double the 466 shootings during the same period in 2019. The number of victims has also jumped this year, with 1,000 victims as of Saturday compared to 551 last year.
On Saturday, police sources said Curtis Holley, a man in the Bronx, was shot and killed in front of his wife after he accidentally flicked a cigarette toward a group of men.
“He flicked a cigarette,” a police source told the New York Post. “It just happened to be in the direction of three individuals. He didn’t mean to do it.”
Crime in New York City has exploded in recent months amid protests and riots sparked by the death of George Floyd on Memorial Day. The start of the month marked more shootings in New York City so far this year than in all of 2019.
“It only gets worse from here,” Joseph Giacalone, a retired New York City Police Department sergeant, said. “As the shootings continue, so will retaliation. It’s a vicious cycle that the NYPD worked hard to mitigate, but that they are no longer able and in some cases willing to do.”
In one week in July, shootings in the city increased by 176% compared to the same week last year, with 47 shootings reported compared to 17 shootings last year. Additionally, murders also increased that week, with 14 killed compared to five during the same period in 2019.
The protests, riots, and vandalism in recent months have increased the anti-police sentiment in the city at a time when Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to strip $1 billion from the city’s police budget, and he disbanded the plainclothes anti-crime unit. Hundreds of police officers have also filed their retirement papers as tensions between the force and the public become more strained by the increase in crime.
Crime has also spread to wealthier neighborhoods in the city, including in SoHo, Tribeca, the West Village, and the Upper East Side, where robberies have ticked up compared to 2019 data.
“We’re experiencing a significant uptick in robberies (27) in last 28-days (286% increase compared to 2019),” the New York City Police Department’s 19th Precinct reported last week of the Upper East Side. “2020 (to date) gunpoint robberies total: 14. 2019 (entire year) gunpoint robberies total: 4. That’s a 250% increase.”
