Three teenagers were arrested and charged in connection with a Thursday shooting in Yonkers, New York, that left a six-year-old boy in the hospital.
The alleged assailants, males aged 15, 16, and 17, were charged with a variety of offenses related to the shooting. The 15-year-old and the 17-year-old were identified by police as the alleged shooters and charged with second-degree attempted murder and first-degree assault. The 16-year-old was charged with hindering prosecution and criminal possession of a handgun.
Police say the 6-year-old boy was struck in the chest by a stray bullet after he opened the front door to a family member. The intended targets were two people exiting a taxi near the boy’s home. Investigators believe the shooting was motivated by an “escalation of disputes and group violence involving juveniles and young adults.”
The six-year-old, whose identity is being withheld, was listed as in stable condition at a local trauma center as of Friday night.
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“No parent should ever have to experience the horror of having a young child harmed in this way, due to the unbelievably violent and reckless actions of a few,” Yonkers Police Commissioner John Mueller said after the incident. “I thank God that the victim is in stable condition and hope for his full recovery; I also thank the amazing men and women of this Department for their extraordinary efforts in apprehending these perpetrators in short order and removing two more illegal handguns from our streets.”
The alleged shooters were remanded to a juvenile detention center, and the teenager whom police say acted as an accomplice was released to his family.
In response to a spate of gang violence, Yonkers debuted a new anti-gang initiative last November. The police department increased foot patrols, surveillance, and outreach efforts to community organizations.
Neighboring New York City has experienced a surge in violent crimes. Between Jan. 1 and April 25, New York saw 120 murders, a 9.1% increase over the same period in 2020. New York City’s COMPSTAT crime statistics show that 416 people had been shot this year so far, a 71.9% increase from 2020.
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Preliminary FBI data indicate that homicides in the United States rose by 25% in 2020. Thomas Abt, the director of the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice, said there were likely multiple factors contributing to the surge in violent crime.
“It likely takes more than one factor to create a spike of this size,” Abt told the Intercept. “That means it wasn’t just the pandemic, or police violence, or more guns, it was all of these things happening simultaneously and perhaps more.”
