NYC shootings, homicides continued decline in September as NYPD Commissioner Shea hails cops’ ‘hard and dangerous work’

Homicides and shootings declined in New York last month compared to the same period last year, according to new NYPD data that the city’s top cop says show progress against rising violence in the city.

Murders were down 22% in September 2021 compared with September 2020. Cops investigated 46 homicides in September, down from 59 they investigated in September 2020.

Shootings were also down, but not by as much as homicides. Police counted 136 shootings in September, down by 14, or 9%, from the 150 shootings reported in September 2020.

September was the fourth month in a row that shootings and homicides dropped in the city when compared with the corresponding time period last year, officials said.

Murders are down 3% this year, with cops counting 355 so far in 2021 compared with 366 in 2020, a decline of 11.

But shootings are up compared with last year as cops combat a surge of gang violence that has gripped the city since the summer of 2020.

Through Oct. 3, police counted 1,215 “shooting incidents” in 2021, a rise of 44, or 4%, over the 1,171 shootings reported in the same period of 2020.

Cops report that they are taking more guns off the street. The NYPD has made 3,425 gun arrests so far this year, a jump of 593, or 21%, from the 2,832 gun arrests reported in the same period of 2020.

Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said the reduction in shootings and homicides “reflects the hard and often dangerous work of the men and women of the NYPD.”

“While I applaud their courage and tenacity, the police cannot do this alone,” Shea said, adding that “public safety” requires a “full functioning court system and meaningful consequences that send a clear message to those who would pull a trigger: expect to be caught, and expect to be held accountable.”

Shea and other police officials have blamed the courts’ coronavirus shutdown and bail reform laws for much of the rise in crime in the city.

Crime increased in some categories in September, police data show. Felony assaults increased by 18% last month compared with September 2020, jumping from 1,802 to 2,135, officials said. Robberies increased by 6%, from 1,199 to 1,271.