Police Commissioner Ray Kelly Orders More Officers, Resources to Areas of Gun Violence

Twenty-six people were shot in 22 shootings during the 72-hour period beginning Friday, police said

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has deployed additional police officers and resources to the areas of the city that saw a spike in gun violence that resulted in seven deaths over the weekend, officials said. 

Twenty-six people were shot in 22 shootings during the 72-hour period beginning Friday, according to police. Seven people were killed, three in Brooklyn, two in the Bronx, one in Queens and one in Manhattan.

On Monday, a 30-year-old man was shot multiple times and killed in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, just down the block where three men were shot the day before. A suspect has been arrested in the Sunday shooting spree.

Kelly has directed additional uniformed police officers to public housing developments citywide and deployed mobile surveillance vehicles to the neighborhoods of this weekend's shootings, according to officials. 

"The resources that they're applying now, we could really use that," said Tony Herbert, a community advocate in Brooklyn. "We have to send a message, clearly, that we're not dealing with this stupidity, with this gun violence in the community." 

Plainclothes officers have also been deployed to the boroughs and precincts during the shooting-prone hours, police said. Warrants Division officers are focusing on the nine commands where the weekend's shootings took place to aggressively pursue and arrest individuals wanted on outstanding warrants.

Investigators are also monitoring gang-affiliated street crews for any evidence of planned retaliation stemming from the shootings, according to police.  

Herbert hopes police will also reach out to residents and advocates like him.

"They need to address this and sit down and talk with the grassroots organizers and leaders, and let's have a conversation so we can tell you, we're talking to these gunholders," he said. 

Including the seven shooting deaths this weekend, there have been 127 homicides so far this year, police said. That is a 24 percent dip from the same time last year, when there were 40 more killings in the same period. 

Earlier Monday, Mayor Bloomberg said he spoke with the father of an 11-year-old girl who is paralyzed from the neck down after she was hit by a stray bullet outside her Brooklyn home Friday.

"You have the right to live in Bed-Stuy and not have bullets whiz past your head, that is a civil right," Bloomberg told reporters. "And the right to walk safely on any street in our city, that's a civil right."

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