New York City has 1,000th shooting victim of 2020 amid gun violence surge
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- New York City's 1,000th shooting victim of 2020 was shot over the weekend, and this year's number of shootings and gun violence victims is about to equal the previous two years combined.
According to preliminary data, as of August 9, there have been a total of 833 shooting incidents with 1,017 victims. By comparison, there were 466 shooting incidents with 551 victims last year for the same time period and 449 shooting incidents with 548 victims in 2018 for the same time period.
Still, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said he's seeing progress, with 41 shooting incidents this past week down from the 50s and 60s at the height of the spike in gun violence.
"If you look at the last four weeks, we've been trending down," he said. "But still far too many, to be frank. The work is coming, the cases are coming, our partners are certainly helping. It's moving in the right direction, but it's going to take some time."
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Among recent incidents, three people were hospitalized after a shooting at a NYCHA complex in Brooklyn.
Video from the Citizen App showed the scene at the LaFayette Houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where firefighters say they rushed three men in their 20s to the hospital just after 9:30 p.m. Sunday.
It's unclear what sparked the shooting, and there's also no word yet on the search for suspects.
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Also in Brooklyn, a 53-year-old bystander was fatally shot in the head. Authorities believe he was caught in the crossfire of two nearby groups as he played handball in a park.
He was identified as Christopher Ross.
"We've been together forever," Veronica Peters said. "And they just took him away from me."
Ross was the father of two and the grandfather of three.
"He's just gone, senselessly," Peters said. "He kissed me told me he loved me...That's what he loved, handball."
In the Bronx, a 36-year-old man was killed while walking with his wife after he apparently flicked a cigarette in the direction of three strangers. In Harlem, two men were shot in a brazen street shooting.
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