A 1-year-old was shot and killed late Sunday night during a family cookout on the sidewalk in Brooklyn, three others were injured.
What We Know:
- A family was enjoying their late Sunday night cookout on the sidewalks of Brooklyn when, according to NYPD, two men walked up to the gathering on Madison Street in Bed-Stuy and started shooting from across Raymond Bush Park, this occurred around 11:30 p.m.
- 1-year-old Davell Gardner Jr. was rushed to the hospital after being hit in the stomach by a bullet but later died. Those who were injured and are expected to survive were a 35-year-old man who was shot in the groin, a 27-year-old man who was hit in the ankle, and a 36-year-old man who was shot in the leg.
- But this shooting is one of the many shootings that have occurred in the year 2020. Hours before the shooting at the cookout, a 12-year-old was shot in Crown Heights around 9 p.m. and he’s recovering at the hospital.
- Studies show that between Jan. 1 and July 12, there has been a 70% increase in shootings in New York City, compared to the same period last year. And in response to the spike in shootings, city officials launched a pilot program created to combat the rise in shootings.
- The “Occupy the Corner” initiative aims to increase police, clergy, and community groups known as violence interrupters to mediate disputes. Mayor Bill de Blasio was joined was local leaders and politicians at 143rd Street and Malcolm X Boulevard to combat the violence. “This is the people taking back your own community, this is the people saying we will solve our own problems,” de Blasio said on Saturday.
- Mayor de Blasio also addressed gun violence Monday morning, dedicating a moment of science to the child who lost his life. “To wake up this morning and learn that a 1-year-old child was killed on the streets of our city by gunfire is just so painful, it’s not acceptable,” he said.
There are no arrests at this time and the investigation is ongoing.
