Lasaaun Lawrence, 27, known as 'Sonic,' was fatally shot by a con man who claimed he would fix the dollar van Lawrence used to shuttle customers around the Rockaways. Lawrence was gunned down next to his van on Beach 31St. in September. Loved ones pose in honor of Lawrence.
NYPD evidence collection experts examine the bloody remains of food bank employee Pedro Aguilar-Ponce, 41, who was struck by a stray bullet while delivering groceries at the Amsterdam Houses on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Another innocent bystander was also shot, but survived. Bullets started flying shortly after noon on a December day.
Detectives leave the crime scene after a seemingly normal church-going husband, Manuel Villar, 50, stabbed to death his 43-year-old wife Ivette inside their apartment on Beach 58th St. in the Rockaways in September. Ivette was remembered by residents as a hard-working woman well-liked by everyone. "Oh my God!" said a weeping neighbor and close friend of Ivette. "How could this happen? It can't be true. She was a good person and so was he ... They had a very long marriage. It's strange to me. I'm really shocked."
Dr. John Marshall, chair of emergency medicine at Maimonides Hospital, says the city experienced a "twin pandemic" in 2020. "If you look at the numbers for the people who have been killed by gun violence, the numbers of people killed by COVID, flu deaths, it's remarkable.”
Dr. Shi-Wen Lee, vice chairman of emergency medicine at Jamaica Hospital, poses for a photograph in the hospital's trauma bay. "These are the darkest days of their lives. …they always remember you, what you were wearing when you gave them the bad news. Some of them were very angry. They throw cell phones. We learned how to duck very quickly over the years. Just me tied to that negative memory, it makes us uncomfortable sometimes, they will always remember me, associated with that dark day."
Police tape blocks off a crime scene where multiple shots fired in broad daylight outside the Marcy Houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn in September.
Dr. Moustafa Mourad, chief of otolaryngology, head and neck surgery at Jamaica Hospital, poses for a photograph in the hospital's trauma bay. Caring for victims of violence can be a long process. "You see them when they get discharged, you see them through the rehabilitation process. You get to know the families really well and you realize they were thrust into a situation completely unexpected, very blindsided. And I think it's important to recognize that a lot of people when they read the media, they think this is like targeted gun violence, like these are illicit type behaviors, but I don't necessarily see that. I see a lot of victims that are bystanders, accidental firings, it's not always this targeted type of thing ... There's a lot of sad stories that I think all of us remember of people who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Dr. Katherine McKenzie, trauma medical director at Jamaica Hospital, in the hospital's trauma bay. The summer of 2020 was unusually violent, she says. "As the numbers from the summer started to come in, we're starting to confirm things. We really have been quite a bit busier. It's not our imagination here. Any time something like that is happening, the fear is that you don't know where the peak is ... The fear is that you don't know if today's the worst day or if tomorrow is going to be the worst day or the worst day isn't going to be here for three months."
Joshua Arrington, 28, basketball star and gun shot victim treated at Jamaica Hospital is concerned with the rise in violence he see's in his city. Arrington, who speaks at schools and mentors youths, was shot on Dec. 27, 2011 at the age of 19 in Hollis. "Unfortunately in today's community, you get shot and you walk away from that. You're the man, you know? They don't understand how traumatic it is.”
William Rollins, 32, was fatally shot in the chest in front of the Brownsville Houses on Blake Ave. near Mother Gatson Blvd. In Brownsville, Brooklyn in August. (Wes Parnell/New York Daily News)
A boy remembers Kevin Smith, 62, who was known by everyone for sweeping the block every day. Smith was stabbed on Bedford Park Blvd. in October by a stranger who flicked a cigarette at him. Smith had asked his assailant to not litter.
Dr. Ronald Simon, director of trauma surgery at Maimonides Hospital.
Two men were shot dead when someone opened fire into the car they were driving on Rockaway Blvd. near Kennedy Airport in November. A 20-year-old mother and her four-year-old boy in the back seat escaped unscathed.
