The continued rise in teen violence in the Big Apple showed no signs of slowing Monday, with at least two more youths attacked across the five boroughs overnight.
A 16-year-old boy was beaten in a Bronx subway station shortly after 11:30 p.m. Sunday, hours after a 15-year-old was beaten and stabbed in Brooklyn, law enforcement sources said — even as the Post reported status of this worrying trend. of the teenage violence plaguing the city.
“Young criminals are the most violent. Gang members know they’re not going to jail,” said Queens City Councilman Robert Holden, who serves on the council’s Public Safety Committee. “They should be treated like adults. The state legislature and governor are asleep in charge.
“The situation will get worse before it gets better.”
In the most recent incident, the young victim was getting off a 5 train at the Pelham Parkway subway station at 11:35 p.m. when he made eye contact with another hanger — enough to annoy the attacker, who hit him in the arm and took him. on the train, the sources said.
The injured teen, who was uncooperative with officers, was treated at Jacobi Hospital Medical Center in the Bronx with non-life-threatening injuries while his attacker remains at large.
Shortly after midnight Sunday, another teenager was attacked while taking out the trash at the Coney Island Houses on Surf Avenue in Brooklyn, the sources said.
The 15-year-old was approached by an unknown person who punched and stabbed him in the abdomen before running away – the victim then went to Coney Island Hospital for treatment, sources say .
Police sources indicated that the teenage victim had already been arrested six times, with his attacker still free.
The incidents come as The Post has reported a worrying rise in teen violence, with lax state laws handcuffing cops as more young people have become victims and suspects of crimes in recent years. recent years.
Critics cite the “Raise the Age” law that raised the age of criminal responsibility to 18, filling the city’s two juvenile centers with older, more violent residents. Before the law was passed, suspects as young as 16 were automatically charged in adult court for violent crimes.
“Children as young as 9 years old are recruited by gangs. This just has to stop,” said Queens City Councilwoman JoAnn Ariola, who serves on the Public Safety Committee. “The city is under siege by some sort of Fagin gang who are terrorizing our city.
“The governor and the legislature made a mistake, public safety is in danger,” she said. “Currently, these defendants go to family court and are released. »
Among the disturbing arrests highlighted by The Post were a 14-year-old arrested nearly two dozen times in less than two years and a 12-year-old with six arrests — among the results of the law’s State.
The younger suspect was last arrested on November 9 after officers spotted him driving a moped with a gun – a weapon later attributed to two other attempted assault cases in the Big Apple, sources said.
According to Michael Lipetri, the NYPD’s chief of crime control strategies, 12 percent of gun seizures this year involve suspects under the age of 18.
Lipetri said the department estimates that a quarter of youth arrested with a gun will be involved in a gun-related crime, whether as a suspect, witness or victim.
In a recent incident, a 15-year-old boy was shot and injured at a Station 4, located at 167th Street and River Avenue in the Bronx, shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday, police said.
Sources said the violence unfolded after officers spotted a group of people wanted for an earlier shooting and followed them to the police station – only to hear the gunshots before they reached them.
Police chased the suspects onto the train tracks and arrested two of them, including suspected shooter David Ayenengoye, 20, who is now charged with attempted murder for injuring the teenager.
“Since these laws do not prevent minors from committing crimes, they only serve to make them more competent in delinquency,” said a police source. “Soon they become violent adult criminals and that’s when the community really suffers.” »
