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According to ABC7 New York, major crimes in NYC spiked 23 percent this year, driven by a sharp increase in carjacking, robberies, and burglaries. Police say repeat offenders are fueling the surge.

One highlight – shootings and murders are down by double digits. However, youth violence remains a growing problem.

“Who’s firing a gun in New York City multiple times? We know who they are and that’s who we’re focused on, a very small percentage of individuals are driving violence in New York City and each one of those individuals is under investigation by the New York City Police Department,” said Michael Lipetri, NYPD Chief of Crime Prevention Strategies.

Lipetri highlighted that shootings and murders are down in the city this year by double digits after spiking in 2021. He tells Eyewitness News that the biggest gains were in the Bronx.

“The data was showing that approximately 30 percent of all the New York City shootings happened in the Bronx, so what we did was we moved, not hundreds but thousands of extra police officers into the Bronx,” he said.

While shootings overall were down, there is another troubling trend, the number of children getting shot is surging.

The NYPD says to bring the crime numbers back down, they are focused on prevention with at-risk youth.

“We want to get out in front of it. We want to speak to them. We want to speak to them,” Lipetri said.

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