BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — Eastern Bedford-Stuyvesant saw 14 less shooting victims last year compared to 2014, an “unprecedented” decrease according to the commanding officer of the NYPD's 81st Precinct.
“I looked back at 15 years of shootings and the decrease from one year to the next of that many — I couldn’t find that many when I went back and looked,” Deputy Inspector Scott Henderson said at a council meeting Tuesday.
A total of 30 people were shot in 2015, compared to 44 the previous year, he added.
“That’s something we’re proud of, but we still have a lot of work to do. We ended up with 30 people shot, so that’s still too many.”
Many of the incidents were solved with the help of community members, the commanding officer said, with locals giving tips or reporting information.
“We’re looking for that going forward, that we still have the same community participation,” Henderson told residents. “You see people saying, ‘Enough is enough.’”
There have been two shooting deaths so far in 2016, Henderson said Tuesday.
On Jan. 10, 29-year-old Steven Bell was shot and killed after attempting to enter a family party uninvited, according to police.
A day later, Maurice Jones, 45, was found with three gunshot wounds inside his Sumpter Street home. Police said they were informed by the victim before his death that the gunman was a friend of his.
The precinct implemented the NYPD’s community-policing program this month in which eight “neighborhood community officers” are assigned to cover four sectors to get to know the residents and local issues.
