NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly is beefing up security around the city after a violent weekend. Credit: Michael Stewart/FilmMagic
In response to the more than two dozen shootings in the city this weekend, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly announced on Monday that police resources will be added to help suppress further violence, including additional uniformed officers in housing developments, more plainclothes officers in anti-crime units and the deployment of surveillance towers in the vicinity of the shootings.
A total of 26 people were shot between Friday night and Sunday — seven of them fatally, according to the NYPD. Three of the non-fatal shooting victims were under the age of 16, police said.
The Warrants Division in the precincts that had multiple shootings will be focusing on arresting any individuals wanted on outstanding warrants, Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said in a statement. Investigators are also monitoring gang activity for any evidence of planned retaliation for the shootings over the weekend.
This weekend’s shootings include 11-year-old Tayloni Mazyck, who is reportedly paralyzed after she was shot by a stray bullet in Bed-Stuy on Friday, a 15-year-old girl shot in the leg in the Bronx on Saturday, and three men shot by a gunman in Prospect Lefferts Garden in Brooklyn on Sunday afternoon.
Gun violence is still down in the city, Browne noted. Homicides are down 24 percent year-to-date, shooting incidents are down 27 percent, and the number of people shot has declined by 29 percent so far this year compared to the same period last year.
