New York City Mayor Eric Adams defended the city Police Department’s approach to security over the West Indian American Day Parade in light of the shooting that overshadowed the Labor Day event.
“Let's be clear. One nut shot five people, one,” said Adam during his weekly press conference at City Hall on Tuesday.
One person died, while four others were injured when shooting rang out on Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights around 2:30pm during the popular parade.
When asked whether the event should be cancelled, the mayor shot down the idea.
“We don't surrender to crime. If someone does something to stop the Thanksgiving Day parade, do we stop the parade?” asked Adams. “The cities won't be held captured by the numerical minority that participate in criminal behavior. We seek them out. We hold them accountable.”
Based on the varied age range of the five victims, Adams stated the shooting is not the “normal profile of gang members.”
The mayor touted the “proactive” approach to security taken by the NYPD through the confiscation of 25 guns off the streets before J’Ouvert, the pre-dawn event that precedes the parade. This year, there was no violence at J'Ouvert and it was “one of the safest” iterations in the event’s history according to Adams.
The city also deployed 12 drones to patrol the surrounding area around and along the parade.
"How do you stop a nut from taking a gun, shooting it to a crowd of five people?," the mayor asked. "We were proactive. 25 guns removed off the street just in those small days. 25 guns. No telling how many shootings we prevented. These random acts of violence. We had the police coverage there. There were new things that they did. I don't know if many people noticed, but there was an additional corridor of lanes that they implement now in our parades. So it's no longer that we have to move rapidly. There's a space for police officers to do it. So they did their job."
The perpetrator is still at large and anyone with information on the shooting can call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) and 1-888-57-PISTA (74782) for Spanish speakers or submit a tip either through their website or X.
As the first day of public school approaches on Thursday, the administration touted the full enrollment of 3-K seats to children whose applications were submitted on time.
“Today we can say that we offer 100% of the families a seat for those who applied on time,” said Deputy Mayor for Strategic Initiatives Ana Almanzar. “We have made offers to 52,600 families throughout the entire system just for 3-K.”
The number of applications for 3-K seats went from 14,000 in 2019 to about 43,000 this year, according to Almanzar. About 9,600 families applied late for the 3-K program, with some families still waiting for their children to have a seat in school, she added.
The deputy mayor said a 10-year plan was in the works with a group of advisors outside of the New York City public schools system to make 3-K a universal city program.
Meanwhile, City Hall officials said they supported the decision by NYC Health + Hospitals to cut new patient visit times with doctors to 20 minutes from 40 minutes.
“We think that this is actually going to be a good thing, and it's going to allow us to see more people,” said Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom. “We're going to be adding more physician assistants to take over things like prior authorization and care team management.”
The Doctor's Council SEIU, a union representing physicians, condemned the move.
