Gun crimes on the rise in Nassau, Suffolk counties

Violent gun crimes, often spurred by gang violence, have risen on Long Island.

Through the end of September, Suffolk County's gun crimes were 28.5 percent higher compared with the same period in 2014, records show.

Nassau County, which has a 6 percent increase in shootings this year, had 170 gun-related violent crimes through the end of September, up from 164 in the same period in 2014 -- a 3.7 percent rise, according to the state Department of Criminal Justice Services.

In the past six months, the number of gun crimes in Nassau increased each month, from six in April to 29 in September. However, violent gun crimes were down 5.3 percent over five years.

"At a very high level we are very focused on gang violence in Nassau County, which accounts for the vast majority of gun crime and violent crime," said acting Nassau Police Commissioner Thomas Krumpter. "Our gang-related shootings are our driving force of . . . [gun crimes]."

Despite the upticks in gun-related incidents, overall crime in both counties is at historic lows. Officials in both departments have credited the overall decline to intelligence-led policing, which relies heavily on statistics to target areas susceptible to crimes.

In Hempstead Village, violent gun crimes were down 35.9 percent, to 66 this year through the end of September from 103 in the same period in 2014. But gun crimes have risen monthly since August, with 13 gun crimes in September alone.

Suffolk Deputy Chief Kevin Fallon said the department has made inroads with gun crimes by targeting areas prone to gangs and drug use, which drives gun crimes in the county.

Fallon said preliminary statistics that haven't been sent to the state yet show the county recorded 353 violent gun crimes through the end of October, a 24 percent increase over the same period in 2014.

Citing earlier increases this year in gun crimes in Suffolk as high as 30 percent, Fallon said the 24 percent increase through October evidenced progress.

"The numbers are going in the right direction," said Fallon, who attributed the smaller increase through October to the department's efforts in crime-plagued areas.

For example, the First Precinct has focused on North Amityville and Wyandanch.

Gang retaliation

"We know so much of the gang-related shooting has to do with retaliation," Fallon said. "If we knew someone was a possible shooter, we focused our efforts on them. . . . You know when you have drug houses, you're gonna have guns."

Since July, that effort has resulted in 389 arrests and the capture of 13 illegal handguns, he said.

In Nassau, shootings went from 160 in the first nine months of 2014 to 170 during the same time this year, department statistics show. The vast majority of the shootings -- 125 of the 170 this year -- didn't result in injury. In Hempstead, the number of shooting victims is down from 21 last year through the end of September, to 13 during the same time this year.

Attempting to prevent gun crimes, Nassau County police have either seized or bought back 969 guns in the first nine months of 2015, according to police records.

The "vast majority of gun crimes" in Nassau are committed in Uniondale and Roosevelt, Krumpter said, the hamlets where police installed the gunfire-detection system SpotShotter.

Of the guns that police received this year, 483 were handguns, 327 were rifles and 159 were shotguns, police records show.

The Smith & Wesson .38 revolver continues to be the top firearm seized in Nassau, police said.

Despite the efforts, shootings occur -- some with devastating impact.

Last month, 12-year-old Dejah Joyner was eating dinner inside her Hempstead home when a bullet crashed through the home's front window, striking Dejah in the head. She died 26 hours later.

Nassau police are investigating whether a gang feud could have been the motive for the shooting.

"We are following a significant number of leads; we continue gathering evidence," Krumpter said.

County Executive Edward Mangano said police have made strides in combating gun violence.

"Over the past five years Nassau County police have reduced gun violence in neighborhoods Nassau County police officers patrol and lowered major crime by over 30 percent," Mangano said.

Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan, said that to make an arrest in Dejah's killings, police should be doing "gang sweeps" and "zero tolerance narcotics operations."

"Anybody who has an open warrant in Hempstead should be in jail right now," said Giacalone. "Why? Because you need to have some leverage. You need to start grabbing people off the street who have the 'street cred' and the knowledge about what's going on."

Krumpter declined to specify the department's investigative tactics, but when asked about a lack of visible police presence around the area of Dejah's killing, Krumpter said there is a "heavy presence" of plainclothes officers in unmarked cars there. Close to 1,000 hours of work time each day are being dedicated to the investigation, Krumpter said.

"We have received a number of tips," Krumpter said. "The tips vary in how valuable they are and we are heading in the direction to successful conclusion of this case. . . . We're very methodical about our approach to this. There is no rush to judgment. There are no rash decisions being made. Everything is methodical in our approach."

Nassau killings

There have been 17 killings so far this year in Nassau County -- 11 of them shootings, according to a Newsday calculation. In the most recent killing, a former Valley Stream man fatally shot his estranged wife's new boyfriend, police said.

The Village of Hempstead, which has its own police department but relies on Nassau police homicide detectives to investigate all killings, had five homicides so far this year -- four of which were gun crimes. Only one of Hempstead's five killings has been solved -- a man who fatally slashed his girlfriend.

In Nassau, an initiative called "trace all guns" tries to track each gun the police department seizes, looking for patterns and working with federal authorities to stem the pipeline to Long Island.

Most illegal guns are traced back to Southern states, specifically the Carolinas, police said.

"What we're looking at is tracing it back to the original point of sale. . . . Did that gun get bought in North Carolina?" Krumpter said. "We look to establish patterns for those guns to see the ones that are being diverted into illegal use. And then we look to stem the tide of trafficking."

Since 2013, the department has traced 2,009 guns, police records show.

Legis. Dennis Dunne (R-Levittown), chairman of the legislature's Public Safety Committee, said, "It's horrifying to think that a poor child can't even sit in her home." Efforts should be concentrated, he said, on remedying what he called "the revolving door of the criminal justice system."

By Nicole Fuller

nicole.fuller@newsday.com@NicoleFuller

Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.