BUFFALO, N.Y. — Following a year like no other, in part due to the COVID-19 crisis, Buffalo Police shared that shootings are up, nearly doubled, from what they were in 2019.
In a "Friday Fact" post from the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association on Facebook, shared by the Buffalo Police Department, numbers show that from January 1 - November 29, shootings are up.
"From January 1 - November 29, 2020, there were 276 shootings in the City of Buffalo. That's compared to 145 shootings during the same time period in 2019."
Earlier this year, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced during a COVID-19 briefing in September that shootings in New York City are up 100 percent. New Buffalo Police stats show shots fired calls are up 84 percent.
Buffalo Police Captain Jeff Rinaldo released new statistics to 2 On Your Side Tuesday. Since 2019, calls for shots fired are up 84 percent, the number of shooting victims are up 96 percent and the number of murders involving a shooting are up 24 percent.
Additionally, in a 2 On Your Side original, Steve Brown investigated that street gang 'code of silence' is being blamed for Buffalo's unsolved shootings, killings.
2 On Your Side obtained basic data on all of the shootings and homicides in Buffalo from January 1 through November 5.
The data shows there have been 303 shootings, with just 25 of them solved, or a solve rate of 8.2%. Of the 55 homicides to date in the city, which are mostly gun killings, 13 cases have been closed with an arrest. That’s a solve rate of 23.6%.
Plotting out all the shooting locations shows the heaviest concentration is on the city’s East Side. The population there is largely poor and Black.
