Eight people were murdered—at least six by gun violence—compared to three homicides last year over those three days.
Those numbers do not yet reflect shootings on Sunday.
But about 2 a.m. Sunday, a 47-year-old was fatally shot in the head near Parkside and Ocean Avenues in Brooklyn at the entrance of Prospect Park.
The man was the ninth person in NYC murdered since Thursday.
Those 49 shooting victims were shot in 38 separate incidents between August 13th and 15th, the police department said.
The number of shootings rose by nearly five times—from eight to 38—compared to the same dates last year.
All told, there have been 1,087 shooting victims across 888 incidents this year through August 15th, compared to 577 victims and 488 incidents last year. Homicides were up to 263 through Saturday, compared to 196 this time last year, police said Sunday.
Shootings have soared throughout the summer amid the COVID-19 health and economic crises, adding additional suffering to a pandemic that has killed more than 23,500 people in NYC.
Shooting incidents for last week were two-and-a-half times that of the same week in 2019, the Post reported. Last month, shootings rose 177 percent, from 88 in July 2019 to 244 in July 2020, according to crime statistics from the department released August 3rd.
NYPD officials have blamed early releases from Rikers Island due to coronavirus as well as bail reform for the uptick, both explanations which are contradicted by statistics. Mayor Bill de Blasio has blamed the pandemic for the shootings increase, as well as reduced courts operations during COVID-19, though there's also little data connecting the courts' operations to the rise in violence.
Among the homicides in recent days include a 29-year-old who was shot in the torso in Prospect Heights on Thursday shortly after midnight.
At 4 p.m. Friday, Deshawn Reid, 28, was shot outside his apartment building on Ocean Avenue near Crooke Avenue in Flatbush.
Another man, 30, was shot on West 128th Street near Malcolm X Boulevard in Harlem about 12:50 a.m. Saturday.
About 3 a.m. Saturday, a 28-year-old, reportedly an off-duty NYC correction officer, John Jeff, was fatally shot at Ridgedale and Defoe Streets in Queens.
Three-and-a-half hours later, a 30-year-old was shot at East 39th Street and Avenue D in Brooklyn in East Flatbush. Police sources told the Daily News the man, Jamel Copeland, may have been attacked by someone he was in a romantic relationship with.
Bronx resident Anthony Martin, 27, was shot and killed about 8:10 p.m. Saturday on Beach Avenue near Seward Avenue in the Bronx while sitting in the passenger seat of a car at the time.
The two non-shooting-related homicides include a 36-year-old who was stabbed to death outside on Washington Avenue in the Belmont neighborhood of the Bronx about 8:20 p.m. Thursday and 36-year-old Dashawn Bush, of Brownsville, who was beaten to death in a fight about 4:20 a.m. Saturday in Greenwich Village on Christopher Street. Bush had recently gotten a job at Amazon, according to the Daily News.
In an attempt to quell the violence, the city has responded with more funding for cure violence groups and neighborhood policing. The cure violence groups function by placing community members on the ground who attempt to mediate violence before it happens and prevent retaliation after a shooting occurs.
But activists within anti-gun violence groups say the groups do not have adequate funding and a more well-rounded plan is needed to combat the rise in shootings, though such solutions aren't easy or quick. "I always say to folks, we have 36,000 police officers and about 300 cure violence workers," Ife Charles, the director of anti-violence projects and capacity building for Save Our Streets Bed-Stuy, said earlier this summer at a press conference with de Blasio.
Ten people in Brooklyn were charged with firearms possession in Brooklyn earlier this month, according to Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Seth D. DuCharme.
"The one tried and true way to reduce the rapid spike in gun violence we’ve experienced in Brooklyn this summer is to take the guns out of the hands of repeat offenders and take those offenders off of our streets," he said in a statement.
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