At least eight people, including four children, were shot and wounded on Saturday during the Fourth of July holiday in New York City’s Coney Island section, according to police. The incident occurred at approximately 10:35 p.m. on West 30th Street in the Brooklyn neighborhood, not far from a boardwalk where a fireworks display had been held less than an hour earlier.
Victims and Injuries
Among the injured are a 33-year-old man and a 21-year-old woman shot in the chest, a 25-year-old woman, and a 37-year-old man struck in the shoulder. The children include a six-year-old boy struck in the stomach, a seven-year-old boy shot in the legs or thigh, another six-year-old boy wounded in the stomach, and two other boys aged 12 and 14. All victims were taken to hospitals; seven are in stable condition, while the 21-year-old woman is in critical condition.
Police Investigation
Police recovered a pistol with an extended magazine and 10 shell casings but have made no arrests. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a press briefing on Sunday that the victims were found in a courtyard where a family barbecue was being held. “An unknown male dressed in all-black and wearing a black ski-mask approached the fence line and fired multiple rounds into the courtyard and then fled on foot,” Tisch stated. “There is no indication at this time that there was any argument or altercation at the barbecue before the shooting occurred.” Tisch noted a recent gang-related homicide on the same block and said police are investigating a possible link.
Official Response
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at the briefing, “There is no place in our city for this kind of violence. We will not tolerate it. And we will fight it with every tool at our disposal.”
National Context
According to the Gun Violence Archive, as of Sunday morning there had been at least 215 mass shootings across the U.S. so far this year. The nonpartisan resource defines mass shootings as incidents where four or more victims are wounded or killed. At least six mass shootings occurred on Saturday, the nation’s semiquincentennial, with at least two more reported on Sunday. The U.S. perennially experiences high numbers of mass shootings, prompting calls for stricter gun control, though Congress has not enacted such measures.
Related Incidents
Hours before the Coney Island shooting, an NYPD officer from the sex offender monitoring unit was shot in his ballistic vest in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in what appeared to be a targeted attack. Officers deployed stun guns on an 18-year-old suspect and arrested him; the officer’s injuries were minor. Commissioner Tisch noted the attack occurred on the ninth anniversary of the murder of NYPD detective Miosotis Familia, who was ambushed in a marked vehicle.
These shootings came two days after Tisch announced that the NYPD reported the fewest shootings, shooting victims, and murders for the first half of a year in recorded history: 322 shooting incidents (beating the previous low of 337 in 2018), 381 shooting victims (beating the 2025 low of 397), and 122 murders (beating the 2017 low of 136). Major crime was down 5.8% citywide.
