'Where is the outrage?' Shea asks in response to teen gang deaths in NYC
MOUNT HOPE, Bronx (WABC) -- Police say they've got a gang war on their hands that's taken the lives of three teenagers in less than a week.
"Where is the outrage?" Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said.
Late Tuesday morning, Shea appeared on TV, calling on more to be done about a surge in gang shootings.
The number of shooting victims in the Bronx is up 65% from this time last year.
"We've had a bad run right now in the Bronx specifically, with gang violence involving young kids. This is what literally; this is what keeps me up. It kept me up last night. What are we going to do about this?" Shea said.
The three deaths include the killing of 13-year-old Jaryan Elliott, who was a member of a gang, on Sunday.
The NYPD is now saying that the killing was retaliation for the previous gang murder of 19-year-old Tyquill Daugherty a few days before.
Then, later on Sunday, 16-year-old Ramon Gil-Medrano was also shot and killed, also in retaliation.
Medrano had been in and out of family court for prior arrests at the time of his murder.
Shea is once again blaming the court system which was slow to reopen during COVID, and now more frequently tries older teens in family court instead of the adult system.
"This is really bothering me with these kids. You have a 16-year-old kid arrested three times in 90 days with guns. Like, where is the outrage and where are the hearings to say what is going on? Like, why would this kid be put back onto the street over and over without meaningful help? Is it COVID? Is it incompetence? Like, what is the plan here?" Shea said.
Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark insists the tide will turn in what police believe is a cycle of gang violence and retribution.
"I'm not giving up, so, whoever is doing this, they should know that, I'm not giving up," Clark said. "Back in the '90s we were talking about drug turf wars, things like that. Now you say something about me in a rap song or you look at me a different way or you come into my housing project, or I go into your housing project and you're not supposed to. These are the kinds of things that is causing death. It should never happen."
Residents say they've been living in fear for months-even in the middle of the afternoon.
"When I come to the store, I'm literally like, is it OK?" Shoshanna Morgan said. "Nobody wants to live in fear like that."
On "The View" Tuesday morning, mayoral candidate Eric Adams said crime can be controlled by officers acting with restraint.
"When people state that in order to make our cities safe, 'we have to have heavy-handed policing,' that is wrong, I know we can have both," Adams said.
"I think we can have reform, safety, and fairness, all at the same time," Clark said. "But right now the urgency is the violence. We have to make it stop."
Clark believes bail reform-in certain cases-has gone too far.
"Those people who keep coming out and continuing to do this violence-bail reform should not apply to them, if they're going to abuse it," she said. "And if it means to stop them from causing the violence that they have to be incarcerated while they're waiting for their day in court, then so be it. But something has to give here."
President Biden wants cities to use COVID stimulus money to hire more police.
Mayor Bill de Blasio reacted to the proposed plans.
"The more aggressive they can be, the more they can beef up the efforts of the ATF, disrupt gun shipments into this city, every single step helps," Mayor de Blasio said. "I mean, look, there are too many guns here right now, but if they're not being replenished constantly, it would help us immensely."
But the shootings have continued.
Monday night a 17-year-old boy was shot in the leg walking home on Burnside Avenue in Tremont. He is expected to survive.
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