First in 25 Years

NYPD Hadn't Had This Type of Weekend in 25 Years

Nobody got shot—the first time since at least 1993

By Jenn Gidman

   (Getty Images/samuel foster)

It's the city that doesn't sleep—and it just became, for one weekend, the city that doesn't shoot.


The NYPD reports that by the time Monday rolled around, the last time someone in New York City limits had been shot was in Brooklyn on Thursday, meaning that the city went an entire weekend without anyone being shot for the first time in a quarter-century, New York Daily News reports. Reliable records on the stat go back to 1993. A man shot in the ankle in Brooklyn around lunchtime on Monday broke the three-day streak, but the Friday-through-Sunday record stands. "I can't remember the last time we had a weekend where we didn't have at least one shooting in the city," says NYPD Chief Terence Monahan, who the New York Post notes has been with the department since the early '80s.

What Monahan says often leads to shootings is gang violence, and he says what helps prevent them is his department concentrating on keeping retaliation at bay. "One (shooting) can turn into five if we're not on top of it," Monahan says, explaining that departmental planners meet each Friday to come up with a game plan on how to keep the Big Apple safe. Although the murder rate in the city of 8.6 million people has gone up about 8% from last year, 734 people had been shot in 2018 as of Sunday, compared with 753 in 2017 during the same period. "This is working because the NYPD has the best strategy, the best training … because this department never rests on its laurels," Mayor Bill de Blasio says.