After Murders ‘Doubled Overnight,’ the N.Y.P.D. Is Solving Fewer Cases
The New York Times
In the Bronx, where the percentage of murders solved by the police has plunged, one family is waiting impatiently for a day that may not come.
Maria Rosario has an unopened bottle of champagne ready for the day the police finally catch the man who killed her nephew, JayQuan Lewis. Mr. Lewis’s best friend already has an outfit picked out. And Marisol Sanchez, Mr. Lewis’s mother, says she will throw a party outside the local police station: She has a bakery on standby, to make the cake.
For more than three months, the group has gathered each morning on a corner in the Bronx, at a makeshift shrine to Mr. Lewis, 21, a local kid with a big smile who was shot and killed at a nearby bodega in August. On a chilly October evening — two months to the day since they lost “J.J.,” as Mr. Lewis was known — they all gathered again, sharing memories and fantasizing about the day his killer is caught.
“I have a strong feeling they’re going to find him soon,” Ms. Sanchez said.
