A 16-year-old boy who was shot while driving a Mercedes-Benz in Brooklyn died Sunday after clinging to life for a week after the incident.
Jaquan Gause, of Brooklyn, was stopped at a red light in an SUV at Schenck and Atlantic avenues in the East New York section around 12:30am August 16, police said.
A shooter pulled up in another car along the driver's side of Gause's vehicle and opened fire. Gause was hit in the head.
Police responded to multiple 911 calls about the shooting, and he was taken to Brookdale University Hospital. Gause was pronounced dead there six days later.
The two passengers in the Mercedes-Benz GLS 450 with Gause, an 18-year-old boy and 19-year-old girl, were grazed on the arm and shot in the thigh, respectively. Both were stable.
Jaquan Gause of Brooklyn was waiting at a red light in the luxury SUV at the intersection of Schenck and Atlantic Avenues around 12:30 am on August 16, police said, when the shooter pulled up in another car alongside theirs and opened fire.
Gause was shot in the head in the attack at the intersection of Schenck and Atlantic Avenues
After police responded to multiple 911 calls reporting the shooting, the New York Police Department wrote in a Wednesday press release, he was transported to Brookdale University Hospital . He was pronounced dead there six days later.
The department said an investigation is still ongoing, and no arrests have been made. It is unclear what incited the assault.
New York Police Department Commissioner Dermot Shea has called for reform amid a citywide crime surge this year, arguing that the 'soft-on-criminals experiment' has been a disaster.
Throughout New York, crime has increased in almost all categories. 'This city is built on public safety,' Shea said Monday evening in a Spectrum News interview.
'We're probably about two years into this soft-on-criminals 'experiment' if you will, 'let's empty out the jails, and show me a New Yorker that at this point and time thinks this experiment has worked. It's been a disaster.'
Throughout New York, crime has been increasing in almost all categories.
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea says recent criminal reforms have been 'a disaster'
Officials are calling on newly-appointed New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to crack down on crime
NYC's 'soft on criminals experiment' has been a disaster: NYPD commissioner blames crime reforms for emptying jails
The New York Police Department commissioner implored the state's new governor to roll back disastrous crime reform laws, calling the 'soft-on-crime experiment' a failure that has led to the city's runaway crime.
'This city is built on public safety,' NYPD top cop Dermot Shea told NY1 on Tuesday. 'We're probably about two years into this soft-on-criminals experiment. … Show me a New Yorker that thinks this experiment has worked.
'It's been a disaster. By any definition, it's been a disaster.'
Shea made the comments after an innocent bystander was wounded Monday during a 5:42 p.m. shooting near West 31 Street and Seventh Avenue. Police said the gunman meant to strike a man inside Penn Station who he'd been arguing with over food.
'Common sense is what we need,' Shea said. 'Reforms are good, but let's do reforms that are calibrated in such a way with the input of law enforcement. We all work for the same person: the public. These laws over the last couple of years have been a disaster.'
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who was sworn into office Tuesday, has yet to outline her approach to controlling the crime-ridden city. It will be up to her to decide whether to continue New York's state of emergency over gun violence, issued in July by disgraced Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Shea said Monday's daylight shooting was just the start of a broken, revolving-door justice system that allows criminals to return to the streets without being adequately punished.
Shea said he hopes New York's new governor, Kathy Hochul, will make necessary changes to increase safety.
'Common sense is what we need. Reforms are good, but let's do reforms that are calibrated in such a way with the input of law enforcement,' he argued.
'It's time to fix these laws and get back to where we all need to be.'
According to NYPD data, felony assaults are up 5.2 percent from last year, as of August 22, with misdemeanor assaults up 2.4 percent.
Murders have decreased, from 291 reported during the same timeframe in 2020 to 287 reported thus far in 2021.
There also have been 7.1 percent more shooting incidents, with 4.4 percent more victims.
Grand larcenies have increased 1.6 percent, with grand larcenies from automobiles reaching an increase of 19.3 percent.
Rapes increased 6.1 percent and hate crimes have nearly doubled.
The Brooklyn attack comes amid a growing crime wave in the Big Apple, with more and more assaults happening in broad daylight.
On Saturday, a man bludgeoned a subway passenger with a hammer, purportedly for looking at him 'the wrong way'.
The attack took place at the Union Square station around 9pm.
The suspect, since identified as Jamar Newton, 41, allegedly struck the 44-year-old victim in the back of the head after an argument, causing him to fall onto the tracks.
The victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he required seven stitches to close his head wound. He was listed as stable.
Newton was charged with assault, reckless endangerment, criminal possession of a weapon and robbery.
Friday morning a woman was beaten with a metal pole while waiting for the G train.
And earlier in the month another man was randomly attacked by an Iraq War veteran swinging a hatchet outside the Chase Bank in Lower Manhattan.
Police say surveillance footage shows Newton man twirling an object - believed to be a hammer - in his hand as he walks over to a man off-screen on the other side of the platform at Union Square on Saturday night
The suspect was later seen calmly leaving the Union Square station. He was arrested less than 24 hours in Harlem
Surveillance footage from a Chase Bank in lower Manhattan shows the moment an attacker - later identified as Aaron Garcia - suddenly walks up behind Miguel Solorzano, 50, and begins swinging his weapon in the violent attack
Eventually, Solorazano, severely bloodied, flees, and his attacker does not follow. Police say they have the charged Garcia with assault and attempted murder in connection to the attack
The suspect struck the 50-year-old victim three times in the head and once in the leg.
The victim was left bleeding on the sidewalk until paramedics were able to bandage his head and take him to a hospital where he had two surgeries. The man is now stable.
His attacker – believed to be Aaron Garcia, 37, of Yonkers – was arrested and is charged with attempted murder and assault.
