NYPD data shows substantial drop in shootings, murders and other serious crimes in 2023
NEW YORK -- New crime stats show a substantial drop in key categories across New York City.
NYPD data shows shootings are down 25 percent in 2023, compared to last year. Murders are down by 14 percent.
The NYPD attributed the drop in crime to proactive policing. Since the beginning of the year, officers seized 2,100 guns and made over 1,800 gun arrests.
Despite the latest numbers, two people were shot over a period of just hours Friday, which was also National Gun Violence Awareness Day.
A woman, 51, was shot in the arm on a busy street in Brooklyn at around 4 p.m. Police said she was hit by a stray bullet that witnesses said came from a group of teenagers fighting on the corner of Nostrand Avenue and Kosciuszko Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
"Thirty seconds, everything, they're fighting. Then pow! And everybody runs," a witness said. "She said 'I got shot!' And at first she didn't notice, I guess. And then she noticed, 'Oh I'm bleeding, I got shot!'"
The woman was expected to be OK, but the shooting happened blocks away from where charter school students had walked out of class to march against gun violence.
- Read more: Brooklyn charter school students mark National Gun Violence Awareness with classroom walkout
Police said an 18-year-old man was shot in the chest and killed in the Allerton section of the Bronx a few hours after the Bed-Stuy shooting. Investigators believe he was targeted.
So far, there are no arrests in either shooting.
Anyone with any information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). You can also submit a tip via their website or via DM on Twitter, @NYPDTips. All calls are kept confidential.