Dirt bike gangs turn violent in NYC, adding to city’s troubling crime surge
maylen
NEW YORK (NewsNationNow) — Two men on scooters fired shots into a livery cab, killing a 16-year-old boy sitting in the back of the vehicle in the Bronx late Sunday, police said.
Authorities responded to a call of a person shot in the vicinity of East 178th Street and Valentine Avenue in the Mount Hope neighborhood just after 11:30 p.m., cops said.
Officers arrived to find a victim with gunshot wounds to his head and chest, police said.
He was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The victim, later identified as 16-year-old Ramon Gil-Medrano, was riding in the back of a black livery cab when the suspects riding two separate scooters began to fire shots at the vehicle, according to police.
Gil-Medrano is known within the NYPD and a member of the 800 YGz gang with five prior arrests, according to police sources.
Police believe he was targeted.
The livery cab driver was uninjured and called 911, cops said.
The incident comes amid a violent weekend in New York City. There were several reported shootings on Sunday with at least 10 victims injured or killed, including a 13-year-old boy who was gunned down in a gang-related shooting in Belmont.
There have been at least 795 shooting incidents so far this year in New York City with more than 900 victims compared to 612 shootings at the same time last year with 750 victims, according to the NYPD.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday said the state needs to approach crimes involving youth a different way.
“And it’s not enough to say ‘No, don’t do drugs. Don’t join a gang.’ There has to be an alternative. There has to be hope,” Cuomo said while announcing a summer jobs program.
But the city’s Police Commissioner Dermot Shea called on the courts to get tougher to violent offenders.
Democratic mayoral nominee and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams plans to prioritize the spike in gun violence if elected into City Hall. He is expected to meet with President Joe Biden Monday to discuss curbing gun violence.
NewsNation affiliate WPIX contributed to this report.
