Police tracking a shooting suspect in the Bronx on Feb. 10.
Photo by Dean Moses
Gun violence has exploded in the Bronx in February, leaving a number of people dead — and prompting the NYPD to deploy additional resources to the borough ahead of a major reorganization set to take place this spring.
According to police sources, the Bronx has had an increase of nine shootings this month as of Feb. 15, compared to the same time last year. One of these shootings included the slaying of 16-year-old up-and-coming football star Christopher Redding. A 17-year-old gunman was cuffed and charged with his murder over the weekend.
Redding’s former coach, Christopher Lopez, said that the teenager died while protecting others amid a hail of bullets fired on Feb. 11 at the corner of Broadway and West 238th Street in Kingsbridge.
“Christopher was defending his friends who were being targeted by a group of individuals who then opened fire on them in the Bronx. His last act on earth was one of courage and selflessness, protecting those he cared about. The loss of Christopher has deeply affected his family, his teammates, and the entire community,” Christopher Lopez, the boy’s former coach, wrote a GoFundMe set up in his honor.
One day before Redding was tragically gunned down, 41-year-old Adrian Dawodu was fatally shot on the 170 Street Station platform on the afternoon of Feb. 10 during a violent brawl caught on viral video. His alleged killer, 27-year-old Alberto Frias, remains on the lam after begging for aid from his girlfriend.
“We have him on video running back to the apartment. He’s very frantic. He meets up with his girlfriend and another family member, asking them to get him an Uber,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said. “They order him a Lyft. But, actually, while he changes his clothing, he drops the shell case he must have had in his clothing. He leaves the shell casing at the scene, inside of his apartment, in his bedroom.”
Days later, on Feb. 13, 26-year-old Amir Ahmad was found dead with a gunshot wound to the chest outside of 660 Thwaites Place near Boston Road in an apparent robbery.
On Feb. 16, a 37-year-old man was shot in the leg and had his gold chain stolen outside of a gas station located at 1930 Bartow Ave. He is expected to survive.
According to NYPD data, shootings in the Bronx were already on the rise as of Feb. 8 by 26.3%, before last week’s deadly spate.
When reached for comment, an NYPD spokesperson told amNewYork that police have deployed additional resources to the Bronx, but cautioned that the year is still young, and it is too early to suggest a broader, upward trend in gun violence.
“Six weeks of data is a statistically short time frame to allege any type of broad trend. We are in the infancy of 2026 and to use this short timeframe of crime data would not be statistically accurate,” an NYPD spokesperson said.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch previously admitted that the Bronx has steadily led the way in crime more than any other borough. During her State of the NYPD address last week, she revealed she will be splitting into two police sections, allowing her to flood the area with more cops.
“For too long, the Bronx has experienced more crime per capita than any other borough while operating under a structure that hasn’t kept pace with the demands placed on it,” Tisch stated. “Just look at the numbers. Last year, the Bronx accounted for more than one-third of all shooting incidents and shooting victims citywide – roughly three times Queens and Manhattan. The borough recorded more major crime than Manhattan and Queens, and nearly as much as Brooklyn. And Bronx residents generated nearly one million calls for service last year – more than Queens and nearly equal to Manhattan.”
Dean Moses
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