NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- Mayor Eric Adams posted chilling video showing a mother and her young son being robbed at gunpoint in their Bronx apartment building, and he slammed critics of the city's revamped NYPD anti-gun units.
Adams tweeted the video on Sunday night, writing, "Mother and baby held at gun point during a recent robbery. And a small group of people in this city are asking why we put an anti-gun unit in place."
Surveillance video from the March 9 robbery shows the mom and 3-year-old boy walking down a stairwell to the lobby of their Kingsbridge Heights building before the two men ambush and threaten them at gunpoint. The men stole the mom's SUV and her $1,500 designer handbag. She and her son were not physically injured.
At an unrelated event Monday morning, the mayor said the incident is a stark example of why the city needs police to get guns off the streets.
"If any New Yorker saw that video, it had to send shockwaves through you," Adams said.
The mayor said he's tired of critics who say the new anti-gun units, which hit the streets this month, will do more harm than good in minority communities.
"That's just noise. Ask them what harm those two gunmen did," he said. "I am so tired of people spending all of their energy protecting criminals and not protecting innocent New Yorkers."
"They're talking about protecting those who carry guns," Adams said. "How about protecting the people who are doing right? How about protecting the 3-year-old girl, the 7-year-old girl, the countless number of Black and brown people that are shot in the community by the same people that continue to get arrested, come back out and get arrested again?"
Adams, a former NYPD captain, promised the revamped anti-gun units will balance public safety with respect for the communities they serve. He said the units are easily identifiable as police and are working with community leaders to identify bad actors.
"I'm going to utilize the police department to fight crime, and I'm going to assure that no one is abusive, because that's what I did for 35 years, and I'm going to continue to do that," the mayor said.
Adams said one of the two suspects was arrested in the Bronx robbery. He's a 23-year-old with a history of arrests for gun possession.
"He's part of the revolving-door criminal justice system," Adams said. "Many people don't realize there's a small number of people that are violent, will continue to be violent, until we stop them."
