Transcript: Mayor Adams Announces Removal of Over 3,000 Illegal Firearms From New York City Streets Since Beginning of 2025 Alone, as Shootings and Shooting Victims Hit New Record Lows

July 27, 2025

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you so much. Such an important conversation we're going to have today, but before I begin, I want to update New Yorkers on the weather we're expecting today and this week. The forecast is calling for about a half an inch of rain across the city today, with some spots possibly seeing up to three inches.

Some storms could bring downpours with rain falling fast up to two inches an hour. This can cause minor flooding, especially areas that flood easily. And as such, we have activated our flash flood plan across the five boroughs with city agencies on alert since yesterday, and we are preparing to respond upon impact.

I urge New Yorkers to stay weather aware, and please stay off the roads during thunderstorms so that we can allow our crews to do what they do so well. If you must travel, use public transportation, and New Yorkers can subscribe to NotifyNYC for the latest updates or text NotifyNYC to 692-692.

We're also expecting a heat wave to hit from Monday through Wednesday, with temperatures and humidity pushing the heat index to near or above 100 degrees. This is some serious heat, and when you think about it, the largest cause of weather-related death is associated with heat, and it could be deadly.

Cooling centers will be open across the five boroughs, limited time outdoors if possible, be in an air-conditioned room, and take advantage of our cooling centers. If you must work outside, take breaks, drink a lot of water.

We say this over and over, we want the muscle memory to kick in, and people know exactly what they need to do. And again, never leave a child or a pet inside a car, the temperatures could [be] extremely high. And you can find many ways to stay cool online at nyc.gov/beattheheat, or by calling 311.

And as always, as we switch gears into the conversation at the moment, we're always proud to address the issues that are plaguing our city, particularly when it's about breaking records. It's always good to have good records like housing records and other records, but unfortunately we also have records that sends a signal of guns on our streets.

And we are now reporting another record of what the police commissioner has done, and our men and women in the law enforcement community, and our crisis management teams. Often, we really don't appreciate the full scope of our crisis management teams, and what they do, and we cannot thank them enough.

And these are real partnerships, the district attorney has been a partner in taking down illegal gangs, Assemblywoman Jackson has been a leading voice around finding interventions for young people so they don't have to reach the point of being involved in violence.

And we cannot say enough about our Bronx borough president, Vanessa Gibson. Every time– even days when I was borough president, how she would continuously be present to deal with violence and some of the unfortunate shootings that take place in the Bronx.

Real partnership that we have here, and we want to thank everyone, and Yanely has also joined us and she will be speaking in a moment, but it is about how do we come together and ensure that we have intervention and prevention.

Prevention is as important as the intervention. Prevention is having the right programs, the right way of allowing our young people to be positively engaged, such as Summer Youth Employment, Summer Rising program, Saturday Night [Lights], all of these programs are about taking our young people off the streets and allowing them to have the opportunities that many of us experience.

Nothing makes me prouder than the records we are setting when it comes to reducing gun violence and increasing safety. When you think about the first six months of this year, with our crisis management team, the Police Department, police officers, the commissioner and our leadership, we have witnessed the lowest number of shootings and homicides in the recorded history of the city.

And we accomplished that task because if guns are not on the street, they cannot be used to harm innocent people, and we accomplished that. Over the last three and a half years, we have worked to create safer streets, safer subways, safer public housing locations, and places where children and families are.

We have succeeded and exceeded across the board. Our relentless efforts and strong interagency collaborations have led to six consecutive quarters of crime reduction. This is continuous improvements in each quarter since January of 2024, improvements that are smashing records, and most importantly, these improvements are saving lives.

2024 was the fourth lowest year for shootings in New York City in recorded history in 2024, and with shooting incidents and shooting victims at record lows for the first six months of this year. 2025 is on track to be even safer.

This success is a direct result of our upstream investment that every agency has a hand in in our downstream solution that the police commissioner and our dedicated NYPD officers are carrying out every day.

Just since the start of this year, the NYPD has already [removed] over 3,000 illegal guns off our streets. I just need to have that settled in, 3,000 illegal guns off our street, bringing the total number of illegal firearms removed from the hands of criminals since the start of this administration in January 2022 to 22,700 illegal guns.

The success has helped drive a 54 percent decrease in shooters and a 36 percent reduction in homicides citywide. This is so important to understand because all of us here that respond to shootings or loss of life, all of us know what it is to experience such a terrible tragedy.

Overall major crimes also continue to trend downward. From January through June 2025, major crimes citywide dropped 5.5 percent compared to the same period last year, resulting in 3,348 fewer victims of major crimes across the five boroughs.

In 2025, major crime declined 6 percent citywide, driven by decreases in all seven major crime categories with additional reduction in transit crime, housing development crime, hate crimes, and more. These are just stats to some, but they're more than stats to us.

Thousands of guns off our streets means thousands of lives, thousands of families protected from violence like Yanely had to experience. As I say over and over again, she has turned pain into purpose and cannot thank her enough for doing everything possible to prevent other families from experiencing this, particularly through her foundation and other efforts.

Entire communities are made safer and stronger and more peaceful. We're making great progress, one arrest, one gun recovery, and one life at a time. Each gun we take off the street is a river of violence that we are damning, and we will dam each river until we stop the sea of violence that we are experiencing in our city and particularly here in the borough of the Bronx. A positive impact that ripples across our city and uplifts every aspect of our lives.

But every firearm taken to the street is only one part of the equation. Ensuring consequences for those who carry illegal firearms and commit acts of violence is equally critical, and we're going to continue to partner with the district attorney to carry that out.

She has been a real champion and voice for not only prosecuting those dangerous gang members but talking about what are the preventive steps that we can take, a role model of what DA’s should be.

So I want to thank the NYPD, I want to thank our teams, I want to thank our crisis management team, I want to thank my elected officials, but most importantly, I want to thank the parents who are victims of violence and their children experience the violence.

I think Yanely is a real symbol of what these parents experience, and far too often they feel as though no changes are being made, but today we want to say those changes are being made and we thank them for their continuous advocacy around this issue. I want to turn it over to the police commissioner of the City of New York.

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch: Thank you sir and good afternoon everyone. As the mayor said, New York City is continuing to break records. More than 3,000 guns seized in New York City so far this year. That's not just a milestone, it's a remarkable pace.

An average of more than 14 guns a day, every single day for seven straight months. And if you're keeping score, that brings us to almost 23,000 guns since Mayor Adams took office. Let me put that in context. No police department in America is coming close to what the NYPD is doing on guns under Mayor Adams's leadership. Not one.

And you want to know what happens when you take that many weapons out of circulation? You get results like this. Right here in the 42, with its four summer violent zones, shootings are down 50 percent year over year. And as we stand here today, citywide, we are at the lowest number of shooting incidents and the lowest number of shooting victims ever recorded in New York City.

That's not just a downward trend, that's a record-smashing transformation of public safety. This is the NYPD breaking the cycle of violence by ripping the weapons out of it. And look, we say it all the time, gun arrests are some of the most dangerous work that our officers do.

Just last week in the 40 precinct in the Bronx, during a 10-minute span, officers recovered three guns from three different perpetrators. Two of them while responding to a shots fired 911 call. And make no mistake, those guns aren't tied to just one incident.

Far too often, ballistic analysis shows that a single gun is tied to multiple shootings. That's the level of threat we're neutralizing and the level of work that our great officers are doing.

So let me pause for a second and say thank you to the men and women of the NYPD who truly deserve the credit here. You're out there day and night, on weekends, on holidays, tracking shooters and walking into danger.

And the wins we're announcing today, you've earned, not with talk, but with action. But I also want to be clear about something else. These wins don't happen without real vision. The success that we are reaping today is the direct result of the last three and a half years under Mayor Adams' leadership.

He backed the NYPD, he backed our mission, and this is the result that we celebrate today. Fewer guns, fewer shootings, fewer lives lost. He didn't just talk about public safety, he delivered it. Just let the numbers speak for themselves.

Because this is what happens when you support cops, when you enforce the law, and when you go all in on public safety, and we are not letting up. Before I close, I want to introduce someone whose voice carries more weight than a statistic ever could.

Yanely Henriquez lost her daughter to gun violence in 2022. Since that day, she's turned her grief into purpose. It's because of families like hers that we do this work so relentlessly. And it's her strength that reminds us what's truly at stake. Yanely, thank you for being here.

Yanely Henriquez: Good afternoon. My name is Yanely Henriquez, and I'm here today as a mother, Angellyh’s mother. In April 2022, my daughter was just a few blocks away from her school when she was struck by a stray bullet fired from a ghost gun in broad daylight.

She was only 16 years old. She wanted to be a doctor, she wanted to save lives, and in an instant, hers was taken. Angellyh was my best friend, we did everything together, and now I carry her every single day, in my heart, in my memories, and on my necklace that I wear very close to my chest.

After she was taken from me, something changed. Grief turned into determination. A fire was lit inside me to fight for justice, not only for Angellyh, but for every innocent life lost to a ghost gun.

I filed a lawsuit against the company that makes and sells easily accessible ghost gun kits, because no parent should have to bury their child. Because of an untraceable weapon that could have never been in our street in the first place.

That's why I'm here today, because this work matters. Every gun taken off the street is a life saved. The 22,700 plus guns removed during the administration matter, as do the 3,000 guns taken off the street so far. And while I [will] never get my daughter back, I would never stop fighting to make sure no other family has to feel this pain.

Thank you for Mayor Adams, Police Commissioner Tisch, and every one of the police officers working to get these deadly weapons out the street. Let's keep going for Angellyh and for every child who deserves to grow up safely in a city that pertains to us.

I close by saying thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it. And like I always tell my daughter, I love her forever and a day.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Yeah, so true. So true. A real moment. No parent wants to experience this. I want to turn it over to a real partner in protecting Bronxites, the District Attorney Darcel Clark, followed by our Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, and followed by our Assemblywoman Chantel Jackson.

Darcel Clark, District Attorney, Bronx County: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, police commissioner. Thank you, Yanely. This is a partnership. And mayor, thank you for your commitment to the Bronx, to New York City, to end gun violence in our city. Thank you, Police Commissioner Tisch, for all you have done.

We, and I know the borough president and I talk about this, we're getting more police officers on our streets in the Bronx than ever before. And we need them now. We're happy to see the downtrend in the violence. Even the Bronx is seeing a difference. And this is because of the commitment of the mayor and the police commissioner. And I thank you both for that.

Also, the women and men of the NYPD. Look, I can't do this work without you. I cannot. This is– you are my partners through and through. And no matter what, we have each other's back to make sure that you– when you put yourselves in harm's way, it makes a difference.

Your work matters. And the community appreciates it. Whether you hear it or not, whether they say thank you to you, I say thank you to you. Because the residents of the Bronx really need you. And Yanely thank you for your work. I have been there from the beginning with her since 2022, when we lost Angellyh. And I've never left her side. As a matter of fact, she helps in this work.

When I unfortunately have to deal with another family who suffers another loss of a child, and I've had mothers and fathers who cannot deal with it. I need somebody to speak to them. I need somebody who understands what they're going through.

I'm the D.A., and I can say I understand, and my office gets resources, and I do everything I can to get justice for their loved one. But nobody, no one can do it better than someone who has actually gone through it. And Yanely, I have her on speed dial. She knows that. She texts me. I text her. We keep, you know, she stays in the fight.

You know, Angellyh did not die in vain. This pain is– her pain has been turned to purpose. I've worked with the foundation. Those are the things that make a difference, reaching these kids through this. We know how to do law enforcement. I know this all day, every day. I've been doing this for 40 years now.

And working with the police, and my husband was on the job as well. I get it. Working side by side with the police, I get it. But it's the other side of it that we have to work with Assemblymember Jackson, knowing that we have to understand community. And that's what we're doing. So 3,000 guns off the streets so far. Wonderful. 500 of them. 500 of them in the Bronx.

That's how many cases I've already started so far, and have over 1,000 pending gun cases. So I thank the men and women of the NYPD who have helped me in that fight. But I also encourage my federal partners, and I've sat down with them, that they need to be a part of this as well. They need to be a part of this as well.

Because every case that I have, one shot fired is one shot too many. And we're getting the guns, and I'm prosecuting statewide. But it's not only about the shootings and the homicides. That's bad enough. But a case is the gun too. Not just gun possession here in the Bronx. How are they getting here in the Bronx?

We're in the 42nd precinct, 161st Street, right there is where my office is. No gun shops there. But meanwhile, in the 40 [precinct] commissioner, you said three guns in an hour? That's insane. So I need our federal partners to help us as well.

Because the federal laws have become more lax. The Supreme Court has changed the way they look at guns in the Second Amendment. But that doesn't calculate to what families like Yanely have to deal with.

So we're going to continue to fight and our federal partners to get involved in this. We are all in this together, community and law enforcement. So let's keep up the good work. I am glad that we have made the progress that we have. Let's keep it going. Let's have a safe and wonderful summer. Thank you.

Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson: Good afternoon. Thank you so much to our mayor, Eric Adams, our police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, the entire NYPD. I want to thank my partners and colleagues in government, my sister, in all things public safety, District Attorney Darcel Clark, our state assemblywoman, Chantel Jackson.

I want to recognize Yanely Henriquez, the beautiful mother of our beloved young lady who left us far too soon, Angellyh Yambo, and really all of you, Deputy Inspector Emmanuel Kwo, our commanding officer right here in the 42 precinct.

Today's announcement is a step of progress in the right direction. We recognize that with all of the numbers we are looking at, a reduction in crime and certainly taking more illegal guns off of our streets is absolutely what we do each and every day.

But we also know that even as we talk about a reduction in crime right here in the Bronx, across the City of New York, we know that there are so many families like Yanely that are still struggling, that are still dealing with trauma, permanent pain, because they have lost their children to the plague of gun violence.

I agree with everything that has been said, and as the Bronx borough president, I am dedicated and committed to this work each and every day, because we know the answers, we know the tools, and we are constantly looking at creative ways of how we can address gun violence in our community.

So in the month of June, we recognize as National Gun Violence Month, and we know that working with the NYPD, with the men and women that we work with across 12 precincts, Patrol Borough Bronx, Assistant Chief Ben Gurley and his team, well we know there are more tools that we have to add.

So what have we been doing? Planting trees. We've been focusing very tailored with our crisis management system organizations, like Guns Down, Life Up, S.O.S., B.R.AG., SUV. It matters when we say Guns Down, Life Up, and Save Our Streets. Mayor Adams and I often say, we are outside, because it matters when we walk the blocks. It matters when we talk to families that are impacted by gun violence each and every day, and we hear their stories.

And yes, we are sympathetic, but we also have to have answers for the residents in which we serve. And so as borough president, I've been grateful to partner with the NYPD on so many efforts, so many initiatives, so many partnerships, and we're going to continue to do that.

In the recently adopted budget for FY26, I'm very proud to share that we allocated a million dollars to Patrol Borough Bronx to install new security cameras across our borough, because we know that's a part of the conversation. Security cameras, getting more mobile command units, and yes, more officers.

The D.A. and I speak to every new recruitment class that graduates from the academy, and we will be speaking to the next one that's graduating. Because we always want our new officers to know that they are supported by the community. And yes, it matters.

Safe communities are also clean communities. So we also have designated half a million dollars to the Department of Sanitation, because we are going after illegal dumping, because our communities deserve to be clean. All of this matters. This budget that was recently adopted, and I recognize Mayor Adams for his leadership.

Summer Youth, Summer Rising, Cornerstone, Beacon, After-school programs, mayor's Saturday Night Lights. We love those programs that we show up. And yes, it matters. And we will continue to do this work.

And on a final note, I have to recognize Yanely, because she has truly been an incredible woman of strength and courage. Yes, I'm on her speed dial too. I text her a lot, because I always want to encourage her to keep going. And just this past several few weeks in June, we were at her daughter's graduation, receiving her high school diploma that Angellyh worked so hard for.

She was a part of the class of 2025 at University Prep. And so the work continues, ladies and gentlemen. In honor of Angellyh Yambo, we have a foundation, we gave our school supplies, and we're doing so much more, because we have to turn that pain into purpose, and our storm into strength. And so thank you all for recognizing the importance.

Commissioner Tisch knows, I call a lot. I'm very persistent. I am very persistent, but I will always have the Bronx's back. And I will always ask for what we need. And so I always say we ask, and we demand, because we deserve all the resources that we are getting.

Mayor Adams, Commissioner Tisch, thank you so much to everyone for investing in the Bronx. Only by working together will we keep our residents and families safe, because that's what all New Yorkers and all Bronxites truly deserve. Thank you so much.

State Assemblymember Chantal Jackson: We’re here in the 79th Assembly district, I’m Assemblymember Jackson here with my son, TJ… I do this work specifically for my son and my daughter, because when I see them, I see everyone else's kids as well. So I'm forever grateful for every gun that we take off this street.

New York has some of the toughest gun laws that we've created at the state level. However, like our D.A. said, they still end up here in the Bronx. We don't own gun shops. So we are calling on our federal partners to finally do what is necessary to keep our kids safe.

We're asking for you guys to create laws that will keep Bronxites safe. The young people that are dying, even right here in the 42 precinct, we had a 21-year-old shot on July 6th, okay, 21 years old. Life is forever going to be different because of guns that were produced not here, but used here.

So while I'm working at the state to create more gun laws, I'll create every single law. We are still being bombarded with these illegal guns that are being put in our communities coming up and down I-95. And that is the responsibility of our federal partners to step in and do something about.

I am forever grateful for my precinct, the 42 precinct, for helping and being out on the street and making sure that we're doing preventive measures. And we are also responsible for making sure that these guns never even came into the Bronx in the first place. So I'm thankful to our commissioner.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you to every NYPD officer who puts their life on the line to make sure that the rest of us are safe. As a mom, I hear you, I feel for you, and I pray to God that we don't ever have to do this again for another child. But we will if we don't continue to keep these guns off the streets. So thank you, everyone.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Well said. A few on-topic.

Question Mayor, these are traditionally 3D-printed guns. They usually have small portions that are 3D-printed.I noticed some guns on the walls have large portions that are mostly 3D-printed.

I was wondering, how has that technology grown over the years, and how has that affected the way NYPD goes after these guns? Commissioner, you want to jump in?

Commissioner Tisch: Sure. I mean, 3D-printing has completely changed everything about how we deal with guns and the proliferation, in particular, of ghost guns on our streets.

The number of illegal guns that we've seen used in New York City has exploded since 3D technology has come about, and so it's a very real factor when we talk about illegal guns on our streets.

Mayor Adams: This is a perfect example here. This is clearly a 3D-printed gun, and we had a case a few days ago of serious threat to police officers, and upon a search warrant, there were 3D-printed guns that were there.

As the D.A. and assemblywoman stated, getting our federal partners to do everything possible to keep these guns off the street, they have to catch up with the 3D-printing industry.

It was a 3D printer that took the lives of many of our young people, these guns, and so we have to stay in lockstep with altering laws to impact the new technology that's impacting the lives of our children.

Question: Anything you can tell us about these particular guns that we’re seeing here. How were they seized? If they were all seized in the Bronx? Any particular details about these guns?

Commissioner Tisch: This is just a collection of the 3,000 guns that we have seized. We choose guns when we're done with the cases, so these are not the newest guns that we have seized.

Question: How are most guns seized though? During arrests?

Commissioner Tisch: There's plenty of different ways that guns are seized. We seize them during case takedowns. We seize them in the course of arrests. We seize them when our officers run into gunfire on the streets.

Every part of the Police Department has been involved in the effort to take an unprecedented number of guns off of the street, and I'll just say again, getting guns off the street is the most dangerous work that our officers do, and they do it quite nobly and quite well. No one does it as well as they do.

Question: Are you hopeful that this will boost morale within the department, this accomplishment? And if so, what do you want the officers to take away from this today?

Mayor Adams: I think morale has already been boosted. What we did, and what was long overdue to make sure our officers receive a fair contract, for far too long they were not receiving a salary that is equal to their peers throughout the state, and the level of danger that they're facing is really unprecedented.

And then, to be clear, that when they do the right thing, we're here to have their backs. You can't send your troops into battle and then abandon them when they're on the field of battle. And I think that this commissioner has shown a real balance to ensure that those who abuse their authority are being held accountable.

But we really understand the dangers that are associated with policing, and she has handled that correctly. And I think that is why you're seeing high levels of record number of arrests, record numbers of seizures, and you're seeing a decrease in crime in the subway, in PSAs, and on our streets. Okay, we're going to take a few off topics so you guys can bounce, you know.

Question: Is there anything you can share with us or comment on this very disturbing case of a dog set on fire in Queens on Thursday? Obviously the public really [inaudible].

Mayor Adams: I think that throughout the years, people hear of my affection for dogs, and that video was extremely chilling to look at. We're going to find the person involved. We allocated a million dollars just dealing with the humane treatment of animals that are in our shelters.

Just a disturbing video, and you know, for someone to do something like that, the dog was being dragged down the street and then to set him on fire. We believe that the video is going to assist us, and we're hoping people who saw something would do something and say something, because this person should be taken off our streets.

And then we really want to encourage people to go out and adopt pets. Our shelters are currently being overrun, and New Yorkers should really participate in adoption. There's no greater, you know, loyalty than in a dog, you know, I want a dog so bad, but being mayor, you know, dogs like a lot of attention.

We adopted a pet for City Hall, a beautiful pet, first deputy mayor adopted, but just specifically with this case, it was just horrific. Some of these cases just really tear you apart, but we will find the person responsible.

Question: Mr. Mayor, can you also comment on another case of the NYPD officer's attacks. Some officers were hospitalized over the weekend in Coney Island and were attacked for breaking up a fight.

And it seems like every week there's another case of an NYPD officer attack. If you could just comment on that, and just the state of the attacks and the cause.

Mayor Adams: Yeah, really troubled about the assaults on police officers. When you assault a police officer, you're not assaulting an individual, you're assaulting the symbol of our public safety. And those attacks, we're going to ask the district attorney to take the full extent of the law to hold them accountable.

You just can't have attacks on the symbol of public safety. And it was really despicable what happened. But we want to thank those officers for doing their job and the countless number of officers that continuously do their jobs. Okay. All right. Thank you.

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