Shootings Up 166 Percent In NYC, New NYPD Data Shows

NEW YORK CITY — Violence lingered in the air and bullets rained over New York City in August, according to newly-released crime statistics.

Shootings jumped 166 percent compared to August last year, the NYPD data shows. The incidents — 242 of them — ticked up in every borough but Staten Island, police said.

Murders, whether by gun or not, numbered 53 — a 47 percent increase from last August, police said. They’re up 34 percent as a whole this year, according to data.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, when asked Wednesday about the numbers, returned to his refrain that a “perform storm” of circumstances related to the coronavirus pandemic is to blame for the violence surge. He expressed confidence that growing cooperation between communities and NYPD will tamp down the spike, but warned it may take time.

“We’re not going to see an overnight turnaround,” he said.

The crime statistics do show a potentially-positive anti-violence measurement — gun arrests in August increased to 359 after a dip amid the pandemic and widespread protests over police brutality. The level is roughly equal to the number of gun arrests in August last year.

And crime overall between August 2019 and August 2020 actually held steady, with total incidents for both months at about 9,000 each. That’s because some crimes like grand larcenies and rapes dipped while others like shootings spiked.