BUFFALO, N.Y. — During his briefing Tuesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that shootings in New York City are up 100 percent.
"New Yorkers are concerned about crime, they should be, that's a fact," Cuomo said.
That trend, according to data compiled by NBC News is happening all across the country including right here in Buffalo.
Buffalo Police Captain Jeff Rinaldo released new statistics to 2 On Your Side Tuesday. Since 2019, calls for shots fired are up 84 percent, the number of shooting victims are up 96 percent and the number of murders involving a shooting are up 24 percent.
Rinaldo said many of these shootings are coming from pop-up parties.
"We've seen an increase in the number of shootings in terms of feuds that are being leveled out on the streets and it has definitely caused the number of cases to go up, the number of shooting victims to go up," Rinaldo said. "Although a lot of these incidents are targeted in nature there have been innocent people who have been caught in the crossfire of this."
In response, the City of Buffalo created a Shoot Review initiative where local and federal officials meet once a week to work to solve shootings.
Rinaldo said the work of the task force has already led to arrests.
"The partnership has been excellent, we have seen some good results, we have seen arrests that have resulted since the task force was put in place," he said.
What is the reason behind these shootings?
The Buffalo Peacemakers and the local head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) told 2 On Your Side earlier this month they agree the pandemic, isolation and drugs are contributing to the acts of violence.
