“We are sure this is a tragic incident. This man was just walking down the street, he had no involvement in this controversy, a completely innocent bystander,” Hernandez told a news conference. Police were called to a shooting at East 188th Street around 7 p.m. and applied quick-setting bandages to the 61-year-old woman’s injury and did CPR before she was rushed to hospital, Hernandez said. NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said he would “not devote resources” to bringing those responsible for the woman’s death to justice. “We are here again to face another senseless act of violence on the streets of this city,” Sewell told a news conference. “Stupid shots without thought or fear of consequences. We know that this incident tonight involved a quarrel between many men, we do not yet know what that quarrel was, but we know that an innocent passerby lost her life.” The woman’s death comes as New York City battles rising crime. As of Sunday, there were 29,608 reports of major crimes such as murder, rape, robbery and felony this year, according to a NYPD report. This is a 44% increase from the 20,543 major crimes reported in the same period last year. Last month, the NYPD deployed Neighborhood Security Teams in response to growing armed violence. The teams are a renewed version of the controversial NYPD civilian clothing units that disbanded in 2020. The teams focused on firearms and received additional training to prevent aggressive and abusive policing tactics that had plagued previous units, NY officials said. The police department covering the scene of Monday’s shooting has a Neighborhood Security Team and additional resources will be developed, Sewell said. CNN’s Laura Studley contributed to this report.
