QUEENS, N.Y. — Cheers and applause from NYPD officers filled the air in Queens Thursday afternoon, in what’s been an otherwise dark start to the year for the department.
Officer Manuel Soto, 22, was released from Jamaica Hospital after he was shot in the shoulder while off-duty Tuesday night.
“It’s an honor to take care of the people who take care of all of us, and seeing one of them get better and go home, it makes everyone happy,” said Katherine McKenzie, the trauma medical director at Jamaica Hospital.
Soto was on his way to work, sitting in his car at a traffic light in Arverne, when two men tried to rob him.
Chad Collie, 19, is charged with four counts of attempted murder, robbery, assault, criminal possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment.
Jayare Robinson, 18, is charged with robbery.
“Morale is at the worst it’s ever been,” said Pat Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association.
That’s largely because Soto was the sixth NYPD officer shot this year, the second who was off-duty.
Officer Kaseem Pennant was shot in the Bronx on Jan. 18.
Two days later, Detective Dominick Libretti was shot in the leg conducting a drug raid on Staten Island.
He went home from the hospital Monday.
A day after that, Detectives Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora were killed while responding to a domestic dispute call in Harlem.
They were both laid to rest in the past week.
Lunch says violence towards police officers has to stop.
“Every call they go on has the potential to turn into a fight, to be disrespected, and violence to face them,” Lynch said.
Violence not only facing officers, but everyday New Yorkers, as well.
The NYPD says the city saw a 38.5% rise in crime this January compared to January 2021.
Statistics the department released Thursday show crime was up in every major category, except murder, which fell 15%.
City-wide shootings were up 31.6%, robberies were up 33.1%, and grand larcenies, or thefts, were up 58.1%.
“When our police officers got gunned down, the city took a deep breath and said, ‘Oh my God, what’s happening,’” said Lynch. “We put out a call recently to the public, we need your help, come help bury our brothers, and they did by the thousands. We need to take that support and build on it.”
It’s a pause he hopes will ultimately make New York a safer place to work and a safer place to live.