BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, Brooklyn — In the wake of a weekend of gun violence — including a shooting that left a 22-month-old child dead — activists, elected officials, clergy and community members came together on Monday to call for an end to the violence, including working with police.
Thirty-five people were shot from early Friday morning through Sunday night in 28 separate incidents in New York City’s five boroughs.
The death of Davell Gardner Jr., 1, was especially tragic.
It was a point acknowledged by Mayor Bill De Blasio, who visited the home of Gardner’s family and talked with them on their stoop, vowing to get justice.
The boy would have turned 2 years old in September.
Instead, on Monday afternoon, a group of about 70 community activists, elected officials, and other leaders counted to 30 — the number of evidence markers, most of them for shell casings, that police discovered at the scene, at the Raymond Bush Playground.
Ifé Charles, the director of the anti-violence group Save Our Streets, led the count.
“Thirty markers on a street,” she said after speaking with Davell’s distraught family, “and the mother can’t even change her clothes. And y’all think this is right?”
It was part of another weekend of gun violence.
In another, unrelated incident, a 12-year-old was also shot.
As for the shooting that killed Gardner two months shy of his second birthday, police said that they believe two men walked up and opened fire into the crowd.
Gardner was in his stroller when a bullet struck him in the stomach, police said. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, and then transferred to another hospital, but he could not be saved, according to police.
Officials said a 36-year-old man was shot in the right leg, a 35-year-old man was shot in the groin and a 27-year-old man was shot in the ankle.
All three men were treated at different nearby hospitals. Police described their injuries as non-life-threatening.
Police are now looking for the two male suspects they said fled the scene on foot through the park. Cops said a car might have been involved as well.
Community activists said that far more than just police were on the hunt.
“You got the whole neighborhood on your ass,” said A.T. Hill, founder of Man Up!, an anti-violence organization.
Erica Ford, CEO of Life Camp, another community organization, was even more blunt.
“We are not going for this sh–!” she declared. “So I’m talking to the streets.”
“You know who’s killing who,” Ford continued. “You know who pulled that g——-d trigger last night. It’s time to go to work. I need you to check in.”
There is reward money of up to $13,000.
Submit tips to police by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), visiting www.nypdcrimestoppers.com, downloading the NYPD Crime Stoppers mobile app, or texting 274637 (CRIMES) then entering TIP577. Spanish-speaking callers are asked to dial 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
