Even with a massive NYPD deployment over the Labor Day weekend, gun violence had still left its mark by late Monday, with one dead and 11 wounded in separate shootings — in Brooklyn, amid the waning moments of the West Indian American Day Parade, and in the Bronx, outside a bodega, officials said Tuesday.
Seven people, ranging in ages from 14 to 53 years old, suffered gunshot wounds Monday evening in Brooklyn at various points near the parade route as the procession was ending, according to the NYPD. In three of the shootings, the department said, the last parade float had already passed and sanitation crews were doing street cleaning.
All of the wounded in Brooklyn were taken to area hospitals in stable condition, officials said.
The Bronx shootings took place by a bodega on Allerton Avenue shortly after 7:30 p.m. Monday and led to five men being wounded, one fatally, according to police. The deceased was identified as Jamari Henry, 24, of the Bronx. The other victims were taken to a local hospital in stable condition. Police said they were investigating and multiple persons of interest had been taken into custody.
The rapid-fire gun violence — 12 shot within a few hours Monday — followed NYPD efforts ahead of the parade to beef up street patrols to avoid something like last September, when one person was killed and four others were wounded. The shootings also followed Tuesday’s release of the latest crime statistics for 2025, which the NYPD touted as showing the fewest shootings and shooting victims for the first eight months in the modern era of record keeping, which began in 1994.
On Friday, the NYPD announced that thousands of officers would be deployed to the West Indian Day parade and related festivities.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said a total of 2,500 officers were separately assigned to the Bronx, where five of 12 precincts have experienced significant spikes in shootings so far in 2025, despite an overall citywide decline in gunfire this year.
In a statement, Tisch said the city had recorded 489 shootings and 611 shooting victims since Jan. 1, all-time lows that beat the previous record year, 2018, which had 502 shootings and 612 victims.
The COVID-19 years of 2020-2021 were excluded from the comparison, Tisch said.
“Our focus has been on taking illegal guns off the street, arresting violent gang members and deploying our most valuable resources — the men and women of the NYPD — on foot posts where they are most needed and the results are clear,” Tisch said.
Overall serious crimes citywide have declined 4.5% in 2025, compared to the same period a year ago, according to NYPD data released separately. Homicides dipped 19.6% and shootings dropped 18.8% compared to the same eight-month period for 2024.
“Crime in the subway in August was at the lowest level in recorded history,” Mayor Eric Adams noted in a statement, referring to the Compstat era of crime reporting. “We see so much promise in New York City, and it is readily apparent that our public safety plan is working.”
“Things are getting back to normal, I think,” said professor Chris Herrmann, who teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, about the crime declines.
Herrmann said crime is declining nationally for the most part and New York City is riding the trend and getting to a new benchmark-level after the pandemic.
Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.