President Joe Biden Plans Visit To NYC As Gun Violence Plagues City
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- President Joe Biden is coming to New York City on Thursday as gun violence continues to plague the city.
Mayor Eric Adams made a solemn vow Wednesday as he stood just feet away from the casket of NYPD Det. Wilbert Mora.
"It is New Yorkers against the killers and we will not lose," he said.
He's a freshman mayor who has had to cope with a gusher of gun violence since he took office.
Tuesday night, a rookie cop was shot on his way to work during an attempted carjacking. He's the sixth officer to catch a bullet since the beginning of the year.
Earlier Tuesday, there were two deadly shootings in Manhattan, adding more victims to what the mayor called the "carbon highways of death."
"Even when the bullet hits the body of our citizens, the emotional trauma continues to rip the anatomy of our city," Adams said.
Watch Marcia Kramer's report --
Knowing that people are scared and fed up and seeking an end to bloody headlines, the mayor intends to ask the president to step up and help the city.
As CBS2 political reporter Marcia Kramer reports, sources tell CBS2 the mayor will ask Biden to work to increase penalties:
- For those directly involved in moving guns across state lines
- For the organizers of gun trafficking rings
- For those making straw purchases
- And for those buying guns from someone legally prohibited from doing so.
The mayor's agenda also includes asking Biden for help from federal agencies in ending the iron pipeline and getting the Department of Justice to go after ghost guns.
White House officials tell CBS2 the president is bringing Attorney General Merrick Garland with him to New York to meet not only with the mayor but with Gov. Kathy Hochul and other elected officials.
"One of the things that is very important to the president and to the Biden/Harris Administration is to continue to grow a stronger partnership with New York and New York City. That is really important in dealing with the gun violence that we're seeing," said Karine Jean-Pierre, White House principal deputy press secretary.
The NYPD says so far this year, there have been 116 victims of shooting incidents, compared to 90 victims this time last year.
"The gun violence here in New York is kind of crazy," Harlem resident Mya Rosier told CBS2's Nick Caloway.
She echoed something heard a lot on neighborhoods gripped by gun violence -- a very real fear of just going out for a walk.
"It's kind of hectic. I feel like just staying in the house," she said.
Rosier just moved to Harlem from Florida, but many long-time New Yorkers feel the same way.
"Just even to be scared to come out my house. Yeah, I'd say this is the worst," said Tia Ellison, from Soundview in the Bronx.
For people who live in the neighborhoods impacted most by gun violence, help cannot come soon enough.
"Just, I feel like just keeping your kids close. That's just what you have to do," Rosier said.
The mayor met Wednesday with the two U.S. Attorneys to discuss high-intensity drug trafficking areas of the city. Thursday, he'll take the president to police headquarters and then to a school in Queens to meet with violence interrupters.
The governor, meanwhile, has already convened a nine-state task force to find ways to stop gun trafficking across state lines.
CBS2's Nick Caloway contributed to this report.