Violent weekend: 10 dead in 30 shootings in New York City on Sunday alone
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- It was a weekend plagued by gun violence across New York City as the surge in shootings continues, with 11 people killed in two days and 30 shootings with 10 homicides on Sunday alone.
Police say 48 people were victimized in those 30 shootings, including a terrifying caught-on-camera murder in which a man walking with his 6-year-old daughter was gunned down on the street in broad daylight.
Anthony Robinson, 29, was walking with his daughter on East 170th Street in the Bronx just before 6 p.m. when a car pulled up and a gunman opened fire out the window. The video shows the girl running for cover as Robinson falls to the ground.
Authorities say Robinson, who reportedly has many prior arrests, was pronounced dead at BronxCare Health System. The child was not physically harmed.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday that he believes the most central issue for the violence is that the New York City court system has not been functioning due as normal due to the COVID-19 pandemic, though police also placed the blame on gang violence, bail reform, district attorneys, and Rikers releases due to the coronavirus.
At their monthly crime stats briefing, police officials said there has been a high spike in gang-related violence, and that nearly all the murder victims are minorities.
They said half of the murders have occurred in just 10 police precincts that are "overrun by gangs."
"There is a lot of gang activity, a lot of drug activity," Police Commissioner Dermot Shea told NY1 Monday morning. "It's bad people with guns, and it doesn't get any simpler than that. People settling scores, spraying a crowd."
Calling the amount of violence in the city this weekend unacceptable, NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan said they are working to get guns off the street but added that rhetoric from a small majority of people is hurting police. He says that when officers go to make arrests, people are ready to fight them.
He also said a new law banning chokeholds is worded so poorly that officers are afraid of making arrests.
"They are afraid if they're making an arrest, that if their knee goes on the back of someone that they're fighting their life, for that they can be prosecuted," he said. "That's a problem."
The city's main jail complex emptied due to coronavirus, and Shea said that population was "transplanted" to the streets.
"Look at the Rikers population of the last year, it's about half," he said. "Where is that other half right now? We've transplanted the general population to the streets of New York City, and it's extremely frustrating."
Shea said he would speak to the city's five district attorneys Monday about the lack of prosecutions.
"We have to get the criminal justice system moving," Shea said.
The NYPD reported a significant spike in gun violence in murder in June compared to the same month a year earlier. There was a 130% increase in shootings (205 vs. 89) and nine more murders (39 vs. 30) than in June of last year, and the number of shootings rose in every borough.
While the NYPD has made approximately 40,000 fewer overall arrests so far this year compared with last year, gun arrests year-to-date as of July 5 are 1,679 vs. 1,683 last year.
"The sharp increase in shootings and violence in New York puts innocent people at risk and tears at the fabric of life in our city," Shea said. "The challenges are great for an NYPD facing the strain of deep budget cuts, changes to the criminal justice system that are impacting the courts and the continuing international health pandemic. But through it all, I have seen our hardworking men and women display an unwavering commitment to the kind of fair and effective policing that defines our agency and that New Yorkers expect and deserve."
The number of burglaries increased 118% (1,783 vs. 817), and the number of auto thefts increased 51% (696 vs. 462).
Police brass pointed to a round of deep budget cuts that have led to a class of 1,163 recruits being canceled and an increase in retirements, as well the NYPD's facilitation of peaceful protests that they say continues to utilize department resources.
They also say criminals released due to bail reform have been rearrested for approximately 750 additional major felonies through June 26, compared with the population of those released in the same period a year ago.
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