NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – The city saw its highest rate of gun violence in 14 years in 2020, new statistics show.
There was a 97% increase in shootings and a 45% jump in murders last year, according to data from the NYPD released Friday.
There were 1,531 shooting incidents and 462 murders in the city in 2020. That's 754 more shootings and 143 more murders than in 2019.
Shootings reached their highest level since 2006, when there was 1,565 shootings, the Daily News reported.
There were 1,820 people struck by bullets in last year's shootings—a victim total that matches the totals for 2018 and 2019 combined, according to the New York Post.
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea and other law enforcement officials have blamed the spike on bail reform, among other things—but advocates for reform say there isn't adequate evidence to link the two.
According to stats from the Vera Institute for Justice, only 40 people out of 2,000 facing open gun cases in July were rearrested.
"Shootings are up nationally, which clearly shows this is driven by the pandemic, not bail reform or any forces that are specific to New York City," mayoral spokesman Bill Neidhardt told the Daily News.
