Forty-nine people were shot over a period of 72 hours between Thursday and Saturday last week in New York City.
The number of people shot over the three days is five times more than the number of people who were shot in NY over the same days last year – 8.
Six of the people were killed, including an off-duty corrections officer who worked at Rikers Island.
John Jeff, 28, had just left a party in Queens at 3am Saturday morning when he was shot in the head and chest. Mayor Bill de Blasio denounced the shooting in a tweet. “This is a tragedy,” he wrote.
The City’s government disbanded the NYPD’s plain-clothes anti-crime unit in June in the wake of the protests over the killing of George Floyd. Plain clothes anti-crime units traditionally patrol streets for individuals believed to be carrying illegal guns.
Prominent members of the city’s African-American community had previously called for a reversal of that decision.
There have been 1,087 victims so far this year in 888 different shootings in New York City. There were 577 victims in 488 shootings at this time last year.