The New York Police Department on Saturday morning announced the arrests of two teenagers in connection to the Feb. 5 shooting of an off-duty officer last week.
A 17-year-old male suspect faces three charges including attempted murder, assault on a police officer with a deadly weapon and criminal possession of a weapon. A 16-year-old male suspect has been charged with attempted murder, an NYPD spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
The charges come in connection to the shooting of an off-duty officer in Harlem last weekend around 7:30 p.m. The officer was leaving a vigil at the time.
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“This is our seventh police officer shot this year,” NYPD Chief of Housing Jeffrey Maddrey said during a Feb. 5 press conference. “[O]ur gun violence has been increasing, and I’m just making a plea to all of our communities, all of our citizens, our police — we all need to support one another. We have to [discourage] gun violence. We don’t have to live like this. We shouldn’t have to live like this. This is the best city in the world.”
While leaving the vigil, the officer noticed the two teenagers allegedly “firing rounds from a gun” and began to “feel pain in his left foot,” Maddrey said.
NYPD Chief of Housing Jeffrey Maddrey (NYPD Twitter)
An NYPD spokesperson previously confirmed to Fox News Digital that the officer was in “stable condition” after the incident.
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The shooting incident marked the seventh police-involved shooting in New York City in just over a month. In late January, two NYPD officers were shot in a Harlem gunfight. Officer Wilbert Mora was pronounced dead soon after the shooting, and Officer Jason Rivera eventually succumbed to his wounds.
On Thursday, 10 people were shot in seven incidents over a single 24-hour period.
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That same day, Mayor Eric Adams tearfully called on city agencies to do more to protect endangered youth from getting caught up in lives of crime and violence.
New York City mayor Eric Adams floors the Hearst carrying the body of police officer Jason Rivera after his funeral on January 28, 2022 along Fifth Avenue. (Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)
Murders year to date are down 12.8% as of Sunday, police statistics show, but shootings are up 29.7%.
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The violence comes as crimes, namely shootings and murders, are on the rise in many parts of the country. Several cities – including Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis – have reported upticks in murders in 2021.
Last week, President Biden traveled to New York City to meet with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams to discuss ways federal and local law enforcement can collaborate to combat gun crime and further invest in putting more police officers on the beat amid a surge in violent crime in the city.
Fox News’ Stephanie Pagones, Kyle Morris, Rebecca Rosenberg and Micheal Ruiz contributed to this report.