For the first time since 1993, no one was shot over an entire weekend in New York.
New York Police Department Chief Terence Monahan said, “I can’t remember the last time we had a weekend where we didn’t have at least one shooting in the city. We went Friday, Saturday, Sunday without any shootings and homicides,” The New York Daily News reported.
NYC had its first weekend without a shooting in at least 25 years: police https://t.co/xBZf36Pgcc pic.twitter.com/UDPZFMQ2qT
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) October 15, 2018
The last reported shooting was on Thursday morning in Brooklyn where the gunman escaped in a black Nissan.
The string of peace ended on Monday early afternoon when a man was shot in the ankle in the Bronx.
The murder rate in New York is around eight percent higher than it was in 2017, although gun violence overall has dropped.
The city, with a population of around 8.5 million, reports that 734 victims have been shot in 2018, Yahoo News reported.
According to Monahan, the department has been brainstorming where best to utilize their resources to thwart retaliatory violence and they credit the shooting-free weekend to those efforts.
#NewYork has marked its first weekend without a shooting in 25 years, police said Monday. https://t.co/VGCftKSJ38
— Deccan Herald (@DeccanHerald) October 16, 2018
Monahan said, “We had a terrible weekend last weekend in Brooklyn and the Bronx. We moved personnel around to try to prevent retaliation and it works.”
Many of the shootings are the result of gang related violence.
“One (shooting) can turn into five if we’re not on top of it. We’ve done a good job of preventing retaliatory shootings. The tit-for-tat shootings are a thing of the past,” Monahan said.
New York Police Department chief James O’Neill said, “That’s the first time in decades, and that’s something not just the NYPD, but all New Yorkers can be proud of.”
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said, “You know, when you think about the history we came from and the challenges that had to be overcome by this NYPD, it’s absolutely extraordinary. But I want to emphasize, a city of 8.6 million people — not a single shooting for three days,” according to local Pix11 News.
