Nearly 50 people have been shot in Harlem so far this year, in a spate of gun violence in the neighborhood that surpassed this time last year.
The number of people shot in Harlem’s five police precincts was 46 people this year in the period ending June 14 — up from 32 during the same timeframe last year, according to NYPD data.
Wednesday’s quadruple shooting at 2110 Madison Ave. brought the tally even higher, and locals expressed fear that the summer — a traditional time for increased violence— has only just begun.
“For the most part people are frustrated in the community because they don’t understand why it keeps happening again,” said Pastor Vernon Williams.
Williams organizes a weekly night out against violence — he will be at 142nd Street between Lenox and Seventh avenues at 7 p.m. Friday — as well as youth basketball programs, and sensitivity program.
In the 25th Precinct, the number of shooting victims has risen from four to eight through the week ending June 14. During the same time last year they had seven,according to NYPD data. Police statistics for the week ending June 22 have not yet been made available.
This year’s increase in gun violence comes at the heels of historic low crime numbers.
In most Harlem precincts, the numbers are only slightly higher than they were last year. There have been seven shooting victims in the 28th Precinct compared to five last year, in the 30th Precinct there have been nine compared to six and in the 23rd Precinct there have been 10 shooting victims compared to six this time last year.
Almost all of the shootings in the 28th Precinct came in May. Three of them, including the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old who was sitting in the back seat of a car, happened in one day.
The most dramatic rise in gun violence this year has come in Harlem’s 32nd Precinct. There have been 16 victims of gun violence in 2015, double from the same time last year, according to NYPD data.
Those shootings include a 74-year-old woman who was grazed by a bullet just outside the Key Food Supermarket on Lenox Avenue.
Last year, the mayor started a program to give nearly $13 million to local organizations to help reduce shootings.
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