Mayoral candidate Eric Adams puts up $2k reward of his own cash for the NYC sidewalk shooter who missed two kids by INCHES during gang warfare hit as NYC violent crime continues to rise
The Democratic frontrunner in the New York City mayoral race, Eric Adams, is to front $2,000 of his own money as part of a reward to catch the gunman who terrorized a Bronx neighborhood, along with two young children, on Friday afternoon.
'It tore me apart to watch those children scramble as gunshots were still going off,' Adams said at the scene of the shooting on Saturday.
'This is New York, not some third-world country. We can't be silent. Our silence is just as dangerous ... Our children must be safe.'
Eric Adams is offering a $2,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest of the gunman who opened fire near a pair of children on a Bronx sidewalk
Shocking surveillance footage captured the moment two young children were trampled by a man as he tried to escape from a shooter who fired nearly a dozen bullets in the middle of a Bronx street and pointed his gun at the terrified kids
Shocking video that was released by the NYPD on Friday, saw a boy and girl, believed to be around the ages of five and ten, walking together on the sidewalk before becoming embroiled in an attempted assassination of a person in a red sweater.
Adams urged anyone with information about the shooter to reach out to police or religious leaders and bring the wanted man to justice.
Police believe that Hassan Wright, 24, was the intended target.
Wright suffered gunshot wounds to his back and both legs but as he attempted to escape with his life, he knocked down the two children all the while the gunman continued to shoot several times in their direction.
At one point, the supposed target manages to get up but then trips over the youngsters before crawling over them to get away.
'I'm not going back to the day where our babies were waking up to gunshots and not an alarm clock,' said Adams, 'Where we normalize the violence in this city.'
The suspect momentarily retreated with the victim, Hassan Wright, 24, on the ground
Then the gunman comes back for a closer shot and fires at the man with the two kids inches away from the victim
'I am not going back to the days where our babies were waking up to gunshots and not alarm clocks, where we normalize the violence in this city.' Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, said during a press conference.
'So I am offering a personal reward to anyone who has information that would lead to apprehension and conviction of the individual who discharged those bullets at those babies. Because if he would do it to them, he would do it to your family members.'
Adams spoke alongside Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz. The cash will be added to the NYPD's reward of $3500.
The incident is the latest in nearly 150 shootings across the city this month and - where shootings have skyrocketed since the pandemic gripped the country.
According to the NYPD, the city reported 202 homicides this year through Friday — a 14% increase from 2020. The number of shootings jumped 57% so far in 2021, with 661 reported compared to 421 over the same period last year.
The man in the sweater was shot multiple times but is still alive, according to the NYPD, and amazingly, the children weren't shot or seriously injured.
The gunman ran from the scene and took off with another suspect on a scooter.
NYPD said it doesn't have a motive for Thursday evening's brazen attack on Sheridan Avenue in the Bronx.
The children aren't related to the victim and were just walking in the area when the shooting started.
The sun was still up when the shooting happened in the middle of a sidewalk lined with storefronts and potential witnesses.
Anyone with information regarding the suspects whereabouts can call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS.
NYPD say this man helped the gunman escape after he ran from the scene
Statistics show shooting crimes have been up this year city-wide compared to last year
Crimes have been rising throughout New York City, according to the NYPD
The shooting marked a continuation of New York City's descent into a lawless free-for-all where random attacks in the street happen nearly every day.
Felony assaults are up eight percent for the first six months of 2021, compared to the same period last year, rapes are up by 10 percent and robberies - which includes muggings - have spiked by nearly 40 percent this month.
The numbers are disturbing in themselves, but the violence has intensified and taken place in public places, like parks and subways, and in front of witnesses and surveillance cameras.
On Monday, an unidentified man attacked two people with a rock after an argument became physical on a Brooklyn-bound subway.
One of the victims was rushed to the hospital with bruising to the head and knee, and the other victim was treated at the scene, according to police.
On Thursday, a 15-year-old was stabbed to death by a 48-year-old man over a parking spot in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.
The victim, Tory Lovick, was pronounced dead at the hospital, and the suspect's identity will be released after he's formally charged, the NYPD said.
These are examples of individual acts of violence, but there are even larger crime-related issues plaguing the city.
New York's Washington Square Park has been plagued by a string of after-dark raves, which have often descended into chaos and violence leaving nearby residents furious.
On Friday night a woman was left bloodied and bruised after being trampled on by terrified crowds trying to flee a man armed with a large knife and a taser.
The man with the knife and taser is alleged to be Jason McDermott, 42, sources told DailyMail.com. McDermott has been arrested at least 10 times between 2010 and 2014, the sources said.
Now locals have told how the park changes after dark, from a calm, relaxing atmosphere during the day to chaos when the sun goes down.
As the raves at the park have escalated, there have been claims of prostitution and public sexual acts, historic pot smoking escalated to hard drugs, and claims of people carrying weapons like baseball bats.
The woman was seen with blood pouring from her face Friday night ad NYPD officers went to her aid in the park
A man was seen handcuffed and being led away by police following the incident in the historic park; police said they arrested the suspect
On Monday, mayor Bill De Blasio downplayed the chaos at Washington Square Park in recent weeks, telling reporters that he believes the situation will resolve itself ‘naturally’
The New York City man behind out-of-control raves in Washington Square Park has said that fed-up wealthy residents should be the ones to leave. Partygoers are pictured on June 10
Two women are seen dancing during a massive rave in Washington Square Park last Friday. Local residents say anti-social behavior is making their lives unbearable
The New York Police Department's Sixth Precinct called an emergency meeting Wednesday night amid growing complaints from merchants and residents about the non-stop partying.
The meeting was met with dozens of protestors, who flocked by to park by nightfall. Although Wednesday night and Thursday were calmer than previous days, the NYPD said on Friday that they'll be on high alert this weekend.
Another major issue the residential and high-tourist area of Midtown Manhattan around around Times Square and Hell's Kitchen, where thousands of homeless people were moved to hotels during the pandemic.
Eight Avenue between Penn Station and The Port Authority Bus Terminal has become a drug corridor and a crime hot spot.
The police precinct that includes Times Square and many of the hotels where the homeless have been living saw a 183 percent spike in felony assaults and 173 percent spike in robberies so far this year compared to 2020, according to NYPD data.
Bill Bratton, former NYC police commissioner under mayors Rudy Giuliani and Bill de Blasio, on Monday warned American cities are in for a 'very, long dangerous summer'
Earlier this week, former NYPD commissioner Bill Bratton warned American cities, including New York City, are in for a 'very, long dangerous summer' as murder rates have skyrocketed
And there aren't any short- or long-term answers, Bratton told CNBC's Shepard Smith on Monday.
'Unlike the last crime epidemic that took decades to build up to the early '90s, this one has occurred, literally, overnight,' Bratton said.
'It's like the virus, it's literally, out of nowhere, and so solutions are not immediately apparent.'
Bratton, who earned the nickname 'supercop' for helping clean up the streets of New York City and Los Angeles, issued his warning on Monday as NYPD data showed shootings and murders in the Big Apple have increased by almost 70 percent and 12 percent, respectively.
In May, Governor Andrew Cuomo called the surge in violent crime a 'major problem' and said unless the NYPD gets a handle on it soon, the city would become undesirable.
'New Yorkers don't feel safe and they don't feel safe because the crime rate is up. It's not that they are being neurotic or overly sensitive - they are right.' he said.
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