Shootings in NYC hit record low for first 9 months of year — but victims get younger

Shootings in New York City have dropped by a whopping 20% for the first nine months of the year, although the age of shooting victims is starting to trend younger, the NYPD said Wednesday.

By the end of September, cops had investigated 553 shooting incidents in the city — 140 fewer than by this time last year, NYPD officials said.

The figure marks the lowest number of shootings in the city since the CompStat (computer statistics-driven policing) era began in 1994, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during a press conference at NYPD Headquarters on Wednesday.

“We’ve had the fewest shootings in the first nine months of any year,” Tisch said.

Yet, in a troubling trend, those who are being shot have gotten younger, NYPD Chief of Crime Control Strategies Michael LePetri said, adding that 25% of the shooting victims in just the last two weeks alone were under 18 years old.

Among those victims was 13-year-old Sanjay Samuel, who was gunned down by a 16-year-old rival outside a Dunkin’ store in Queens on Sept. 22.

Mayor Adams said overall crime has fallen “for the second year in a row.”

“This administration will never tolerate a feeling of anything goes on our streets or in our neighborhoods,” Adams said. “And because of our steadfast focus on public safety, the deep bench of leaders we’ve put in place at Police Headquarters, and the hard work of the brave men and women of the NYPD, New York City remains the safest big city in America, the best place to raise a family, and a place where you know that your city is looking out for you.”

The number of shooting victims so far this year has also fallen by 19%, from 857 last year to 694 in the first nine months of the year, while homicides in the city have dropped by 17%, from 293 at this point last year to 241.

The crime reductions follow a spate of gun violence in the Bronx that prompted Adams recently to announce that 1,000 additional cops were being assigned to the crime-wracked borough and that efforts would be made to reach out to the “gang members, the shooters, the trigger pullers …[to] … end this violence.”

July through September marked the safest third quarter on record for the city’s subway system, officials added. So far this year, crimes underground have fallen by 4% versus last year, from 1,648 down to 1,578.

Police have also seen a 9% reduction in robberies and a 3% drop in burglaries this year, officials said.

Violent assaults, which have been a problem in recent months, fell by less than 1% with 9,410 attacks being reported — 189 fewer than during the same period last year.

Tisch said these major dips in crime are due, in part, to the NYPD’s precision-policing model, in which the department sends teams of cops to high-crime areas to tamp down the violence.

“The communities that are seeing the deepest reductions are the ones that have been historically plagued by gun violence,” Tisch said. “This not only happens when we’re working hard, but when we’re working smart.”

“The NYPD’s precision policing has delivered record-low shooting incidents and victims over the last nine months, and the safest quarter ever on our subways,” Tisch added. “This is not a coincidence — it’s the result of an unprecedented, data-driven deployment of thousands of officers to the areas they are needed most.”

Tisch said cops are “given a clear mandate to get the guns and go after violent gangs — and they delivered.”

Of the seven major crime categories tracked by the NYPD, the only crime to see an increase was reported rapes, which jumped 18%, from 1,274 complaints at this point last year to 1,514 complaints this year.

Police officials said that increase is largely attributable to legislative changes made a year ago that broadened the legal definition of rape in New York State, which now includes additional forms of sexual assault.

Originally Published: October 1, 2025 at 3:06 PM EDT