NYPD to deploy more night patrols Monday, one day after 8 are shot in NYC
The NYPD will begin deploying more night patrols Monday to help stem gun crime – part of the first phase of Mayor Eric Adams’ summer-violence-prevention plan – as at least eight people were shot across the city Sunday alone.
The additional patrols are meant to boost the department’s law-enforcement coverage between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m., when “nearly half our shootings are happening,” NYPD Chief of Department Ken Corey said Friday.
The new strategy partly involves moving all of the department’s 350 Neighborhood Coordination Officers onto evening shifts with patrol, Corey said.
The increased patrols are starting the day after eight people were shot in seven separate incidents Sunday, police said.
“We’re not going to have a city of disorder,” Adams said Monday at an unrelated press conference in East New York, Brooklyn, referring to the beefed-up night patrols.
Adams had met with all 77 NYPD precinct commanders and other top brass Saturday to discuss ways to stem violence ahead of the historically bloody summer months.
Hizzoner, a retired NYPD captain, emphasized the need for police to be more involved with the public and local communities, saying commanders should know the school principals and those in charge of homeless services or other agencies in their areas, according to sources at the meeting.
“We’re really zeroing in, going after gangs, which are the drivers of our shootings, going after those hot spots,” Adams told reporters Monday. “My meeting on Saturday with my commanders and hearing from them, it was an extremely revealing meeting on what needed to be done on the ground.
“And what we have historically done is we have tied public safety only to policing. We’re going to engage every agency in our city to be part of our public-safety fight. And what we did Saturday with our commanders, we’re doing it with all of our agencies. And so our precinct commanders and officers are now going to have a clear understanding of what is expected of them.”
Sunday’s shooting victims included Ronald Thomas, 27, of Virginia, who was fatally shot in the head as he sat in a white Mercedes on the Upper West Side, cops said.
The gunfire rang out during an argument around 12:15 p.m. at 101st Street and Amsterdam Avenue — one block from the NYPD’s 24th precinct, according to cops.
Thomas was pronounced dead at the scene, and the shooter fled. The motive for the shooting is unclear, and no arrests had been made by Monday.
On Sunday’s date last year, which was a Saturday, seven people were shot in five incidents.
The NYPD’s boosted nighttime patrols also come two days after a hard-working Chinese food deliveryman was shot and killed while on the clock in Forest Hills, Queens, on Saturday, cops said.
Cops are probing whether the gunman is a disgruntled customer who had “multiple disputes” with the restaurant over his orders, law enforcement sources have told The Post.
Only one other shooting was reported in the city Saturday – marking a decrease in gun violence from that same day in 2021, when five people were gunned down in as many incidents, cops said.
Two people were also shot Friday – down from the same day last year, when nine people were shot in eight incidents.
As of Sunday, 470 people had been shot in 402 incidents across the city so far this year, compared to 450 people in 405 incidents at this time in 2021, according to the NYPD.
Adams’ summer plan — dubbed “Summer 40” — will prioritize resources for the patrol boroughs where crime has been the worst by trying to keep the cops who know the areas in their commands instead of pulling for beach patrol or parades, authorities said.
“Those are the highest crime areas,” Corey said. “We wanted to leave as many officers there as possible.”
— Additional reporting by Sam Raskin
