The killing of a 12-year-old boy in the neighborhood captured how a spike in shootings during the pandemic is complicating recovery in less affluent neighborhoods.
Shootings more than doubled in New York City last year, and homicides increased 44 percent. But the numbers don’t tell the whole story. Each tragedy is specific, and each impacts a whole community.
There was Davell Gardner Jr., age one, killed while sitting in his stroller at a summer barbecue. Edward James, a church custodian, shot in the back inside of a house of worship. Anthony Robinson, a father, killed holding his daughter’s hand as he helped her cross the street. And many others.
To Louis Straker Jr., pastor of Reflections Church in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, it felt like the city was overcome by violence, a sense that only intensified when protesters filled all five boroughs with the names of Black people killed by police, the city imposed a curfew, and some officers reacted to protesters with force.