Around Brooklyn: Crime rate up 30% in NYC

May 11, 2021 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

A NYPD car. Photo: Julio Cortez/AP File

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Crime rate up 30% in NYC

Crime overall in New York City jumped 30% in April over the same month last year, according to the NYPD’s monthly crime statistics. The spike shows a continued uptick in shooting incidents, but also reflects a 66% rise in grand larcenies and a 36% increase in felony assaults, data shows. Gun violence has been a persistent problem in the pandemic since last summer. Shooting incidents last week were 200% higher than the same week last year, according to Patch.

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Man shot outside his Bed-Stuy home

A Brooklyn man was shot dead across the street from his home, police said.
Kamaal King, 40, was arguing with another man on Lewis Avenue near Lafayette Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant around 9:30 p.m. Thursday when the other pulled a gun and shot him repeatedly in the torso, cops said. “They’d been arguing from when I was in the store,” one witness told the Daily News. “I hear them arguing and arguing and then they came across to the corner. That’s when it went off.” Police responding to 911 calls found King sprawled out on the sidewalk. EMS personnel rushed him to Woodhull Medical Center, where he was declared dead.

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Man shot in East Flatbush

A 33-year-old man was fatally shot inside an apartment building in East Flatbush on Thursday night, police said. The victim was shot in his torso inside the building on East 94th Street near Church Avenue at about 6 p.m. EMS took the man to SUNY Downstate Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, according to the New York Post.

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12-year-old’s death deemed suspicious

A 12-year-old boy died in Flatbush on Friday after he was beaten by bullies in school over two days, including one assault made on a $1 dare, the boy’s family said. Police are calling Romy Vilsaint’s death suspicious and are investigating, EMS personnel responding to a call on Cortelyou Road near Nostrand Avenue around 2 p.m. found Romy losing consciousness. Romy came home from P.S. 361 on Wednesday and told his family two boys had beaten him up. He had a headache and his waist hurt, his cousin told the Daily News. The next day, another boy punched him in the head on a $1 dare. After that, he had a severe headache, vomited and wasn’t able to walk.

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Brooklyn grandmother killed by SUV in Bensonhurst

An Infiniti SUV rammed into Maria Zuardo, pictured, on 20th Ave. at Bay Ridge Avenue in Bensonhurst at 8:30 a.m. on April 19, killing her. Zuardo was described by family members as a traditional Italian grandmother who cooked pasta and sauce for her family on Sunday and who had worn black since her husband died two decades ago. The accident happened across the street from Maimonides Medical Center. Zuardo came to the U.S from Italy about 40 years ago, according to the Daily News.

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Affordable lottery beings in Flatbush

An affordable lottery has launched at 2337 Bedford Ave., a six-story residential building in Flatbush. The development is designed by S. Wieder Architects and has 27 units. Available on NYC Housing Connect are nine units for residents whose eligible income ranges from $55,858 to $167,570. Amenities include a gym, lounge, a shared laundry room, bike storage lockers, recreation room, business center, and a rooftop terrace, according to New York YIMBY. There are six one-bedrooms with a $1,950 monthly rent and three two-bedrooms with a $2,200 monthly rent available as part of the lottery.

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Andrew Yang gets heat for language in church

Mayoral candidate Andrew Yang used the “s-word” in a campaign appearance on Saturday at St. Ann and the Holy Trinity church on Montague Street, getting criticism on social media from people who were there. “I moved here as a 21-year-old law student at Columbia (and) I didn’t know s—t,” Yang said. Afterward, one person on Twitter wrote, “Using the s-word in church, really class.” The Yang campaign made light of the incident, pointing out that it was a campaign appearance and not a church service, according to the Daily News. At the time, there was little reaction from the crowd at St. Ann’s.

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White Sox owner reveals Dodgers childhood

In an interview with the Daily Herald, a suburban Chicago newspaper, Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf talked about his formative years in Brooklyn and the Brooklyn Dodgers. “When I was growing up,” he said, “I knew a lot of people in Brooklyn who were still angry that Brooklyn was forced to become part of New York City. We had our own downtown. We had our own baseball team. We had our own newspaper. We had a borough president. Today, Brooklyn clearly is just a part of New York City.” The Dodgers, he said, “were the glue that held everything together.” When Reinsdorf, who was born in 1936, was growing up, the Dodgers were transforming from a team that was a laughingstock to a pennant contender.
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Eric Adams responds to Times Square shooting

In the wake of last weekend’s daylight shooting in Times Square, Borough President Eric Adams said, “My fellow New Yorkers, the enemy is winning, and we are waving a big white flag. These shootings have to stop.” He wants to reinstitute the plainclothes anti-crime unit as an anti-gun unit, significantly increase funding to the city’s Office to Prevent Gun Violence, get officers off desk duty and civilian assignments and get them back onto the streets, and shift resources into the Gun Violence Suppressions Division. He also wants to create a citywide special prosecutor for illegal guns.

Compiled by Raanan Geberer.