Residents in the Bronx neighbourhood where an 11-month-old was shot in the head last month say the recent spate of gun violence has left them fearful to leave their homes, as President Joe Biden arrived in New York to tour the NYPD headquarters and meet with city and state leaders to discuss ways to combat the spiralling crime.
At the My Place Family Restaurant in the Bronx, a few metres from where Catherine Ortiz was gravely wounded as she sat in a parked car with her mother, a television carries Mr Biden's speech on curbing the gun violence live. But no one is paying any attention to his remarks.
A 51-year-old who delivers pizza for the store, and only wants to be identified by his nickname Junior, tells The Independent: "I walk these streets everyday, there's a feeling of fear. I've lived here for 33 years and this is the first time I've felt it.
"I don't feel safe in my own community."
He had a simple message for the politicians: "Stop the gun violence."
Mr Biden’s visit comes as gun violence has spiked by more than 24 per cent in 2022 compared to the same period last year, and amid a series of high-profile shootings and violent crimes.
A White House official attributed the surging crime levels to social and economic fallout from the pandemic in a comment to reporters on Wednesday night.
“The president is going to New York City because it is a community where they continue, like many other cities across the country, to experience a spike in gun violence as a result of the pandemic.”
The visit is set to coincide with a Justice Department plan to crack down in illegal guns and violent crime, and offer additional support to local law enforcement agencies.
Mother Janae Castillo, 32, speaking outside a deli on the corner of 198th St East and Valentine Avenue, said she was too afraid to send her 13-year-old son Max to the store.
“Nobody wants to send their kids to the store when you could be sitting inside a car and get shot,” she told The Independent.
Ms Castillo tried to get Max into after school programmes but says they were all full. So she pulled him out of a local school in grade four and sent him to a public school in Lower Manhattan where there were more opportunities. “What are the kids supposed to do?” she says. “Their parents are working, there’s nobody home to watch them, they’re running the streets they’re doing whatever they want, there’s nothing for them.”
On Wednesday, slain NYPD officer Wilbert Mora was farewelled at a service at St Patrick’s Cathedral that saw thousands of officers pack Fifth Avenue in the heart of Manhattan in tribute.
Mr Mora and partner Jason Rivera were fatally wounded while attending a domestic violence callout in Harlem on 21 January.
Authorities say 47-year-old Lashawn McNeil ambushed both officers in the hallway of his mother’s apartment, and and opened fire with a 45-caliber pistol hitting both officers in the head.
Mr Rivera died later that night and Mr Mora was pronounced dead in hospital four days later.
Mr Biden personally called Mayor Adams to offer his condolences after the deadly shooting.
Days earlier 11-month-old Catherine Ortiz was shot in her left cheek while sitting in a parked car in the Bronx with her mother Miraida Gomez.
Catherine spent her first birthday in hospital recovering from brain surgery, and a fundraising page has been set up by her aunt to help with her medical expenses.
Ms Gomez, the baby’s mother, spoke out against bail laws that can allow suspected criminals to get back on the streets, ahead of Mr Biden’s visit.
“If there is anything that needs reform, it’s the bail law, the license-to-carry laws and the fine print on how someone licensed to carry can sell a firearm to someone who is not licensed to carry,” she told Fox News. “Bail reform to make it harder for individuals that are arrested with a firearm to be released they shouldn’t even have bail.”
“I think we should normalize that bullets don’t discriminate, and it can happen to Caucasian families as well,” Ms Gomez added.
The mother of a 19-year-old woman who was fatally shot while working at a Burger King tearfully pleaded with New York officials to tackle gun violence in the city.
“My daughter is very special to me. She was a kind daughter,” Kristie Nieves said at a press conference, speaking in Spanish with a translator.
“I want to tell Biden to change the system. To take the homeless out the street,” she added, according to the New York Post.
Mr Biden met with Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul at NYPD headquarters in Lower Manhattan.
They were scheduled to tour a public school in Queens to discuss community violence intervention programmes with local leaders.
Mr Adams made reducing violent crime his key campaign pledge and plans to reinstate a controversial plain clothes police unit that’s been accused of racial profiling, shootings of unarmed Black men, and other brutal tactics.
In a statement welcoming Mr Biden’s visit he said: “The sea of violence comes from many rivers, and that’s why my Blueprint to End Gun Violence in New York City seeks to dam every river that feeds this greater crisis.
“Public safety is my administration’s highest priority, and we welcome the opportunity to display to President Biden how federal and local governments can coordinate and support each other in this fight to keep New Yorkers safe.”
