WASHINGTON HEIGHTS — A shooting that left a man dead and a bystander hurt in Highbridge Park prompted a protest urging the NYPD to increase patrols in the neighborhood's green spaces.
The gathering outside the 165th Street and Edgecombe Avenue entrance of the park, the site of the shooting Monday, demanded that the city stops the Uptown community from slipping back into “one of the most violent times in the city of New York.”
Among protesters were State Sen. Adriano Espaillat, Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez and Democratic New York State Assembly candidate Carmen De La Rosa.
“We need greater enforcement in parks,” Espaillat said.
“This is important because this is a playground for children and much money has been invested... But families won’t come here if people are shooting at each other.”
Espaillat said the state recently allocated $80 million to refurbish Highbridge Park, with another $30 million coming from the city as part of Mayor Bill de Blasio's "Anchor Parks" initiative to make it greener, more accessible and family-friendly, he said.
“There are five schools in the surrounding area,” said Rodriguez, adding that he didn't want children to be at "risk to be a target."
Espaillat blamed “bureaucratic hurdles” that put Parks Enforcement Patrol officers in the green spaces rather than NYPD officers.
A Parks Department captain told members of the community last month that there were only two PEP officers on duty in the evening to patrol all uptown parks, less than the department had vowed to provide.
“In an area like this one, there has to be greater latitude for the police department to come in on a regular basic and patrol the parks,” Espaillat said.
The NYPD said in a statement that “crime in city parks is less than 1% of all reported crime in New York City," while "City parks represent 14% of New York City land mass, which makes them one of the safest places in the city and the country."
Highbridge Park got a makeover several months ago, but it's also been the scene of a killing and a rape in the past two years.
