Bullets are flying in some parts of Gotham.
According to New York City Police Department data, the number of shooting victims in the Bronx's 52nd Precinct, which includes Bedford Park, Fordham, Kingsbridge and Norwood, has increased 130% so far in 2024, from 13 to 30 during the same period last year.
Citywide, shooting victims are down 8% and shooting incidents are down 11% from last year, but both are up 19% and 15% compared to five years ago.
In May, a violent argument between immigrant squatters and fed-up legal residents at a Fordham Heights building led to a gunfight that resulted in three shootings and two deaths, police said.
“What we have here is some older residents who have lived there for quite some time taunting three newcomers who ran into the building and came back with their associates armed with bats, knives and other weapons,” Detective Superintendent Joseph Kenney said at a news conference after the shooting.
Authorities said the suspected illegal immigrant, Jose Ruben Silva, 21, pulled a handgun and opened fire on three men, killing two of them.
Police said Silva, a native of Venezuela who already has a lengthy criminal record, still remains wanted on suspicion of murder.
“The majority of shootings in the Bronx are gang-related,” an NYPD detective told me. “52nd Street is gang-heavy.”
The 103rd Precinct in Jamaica, Queens, has seen the second-highest increase in gun violence victims, going from seven at this point in 2023 to 14 so far this year, a 100% increase.
And in the 34th Precinct, which covers Manhattan's Washington Heights and Inwood, the number of shooting victims has risen from 10 to 18 so far this year, an 80% increase.
In the 102nd Precinct in Queens, which covers parts of Kew Gardens, Richmond Hill, Woodhaven and Ozone Park, the number of shooting victims rose 71 percent to 12, up from seven during the same period last year.
The Bronx's 40th Precinct (Port Morris, Mott Haven, Melrose) has had 32 shooting victims so far this year, a 60% increase from the 20 victims at the same time last year.
“Some of these precincts have historically been violent precincts,” said Joseph Giacalone, a former NYPD sergeant and adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “These precincts should be careful as we say New York City is returning to the bad old days.”
