The Spike in Shootings During the Pandemic May Outlast the Virus

About 505 people were shot in New York City through May 9, the highest year-to-date number in a decade.

A man in Queens was fatally shot in the stomach outside a celebration thrown for his birthday. Another in the Bronx who stopped to check on a stranger’s well-being was struck in the head and torso and died. A 17-year old was killed near his school in Brooklyn after end-of-day dismissal. The three were among 170 people shot over the last four full weeks, according to police data. The last time so many people were shot over the same four-week period in New York City was 1997. The major rise in gun violence in the city began in 2020, after a period in which violent crime dropped to its lowest levels in more than six decades. Now, even as New York City emerges from the pandemic, the spike that began as the virus spread last spring has shown no sign of receding: As of the second weekend in May, the city had recorded 505 shooting victims, the most through that point of any year in the last decade.