Two teenagers were gunned down on the streets of New York City Sunday night — a 17-year-old shot in the chest outside a public housing building in Far Rockaway, an 18-year-old hit in the back by rifle fire in the Bronx — while the city that found billions for migrant hotels can't keep its own citizens safe.
Five people were shot across the city in a single night of violence that left one man dead and two senior citizens wounded in a drive-by while they played dominoes near Yankee Stadium, according to the New York Post. The dead man was 29-year-old Luis Cano — and his background tells you everything about who progressive governance actually serves.
Cano was a member of the Hunts Point Family Bloods, indicted in 2020 as one of nine gang members running a prostitution and sex trafficking operation that targeted vulnerable girls and young women, the Staten Island Advance reported. A Bronx jury convicted him of sex trafficking a child and sentenced him to up to five years. He served just 20 months before walking out on parole in November 2024.
That should have been the end of it. It wasn't. Cano was arrested again in October 2025 on charges of obstructing governmental administration and resisting arrest. Then again in May — this time on robbery, menacing, and weapons possession charges. A judge initially ordered him held on $200,000 bond. Then he was released without bail, public records show. He was due back in court next month. Instead, he was found with a bullet in his chest a mile from his home.
Meanwhile, ordinary New Yorkers bleed. The 17-year-old in Far Rockaway was shot behind a NYCHA building over a dispute — but didn't know his shooter, law enforcement sources told the Post. The 18-year-old in the Bronx was struck by rifle fire; two suspects fled in a vehicle. A 65-year-old man was blasted in the leg and a 72-year-old struck in the hand in a drive-by as they played dominoes. No arrests in any of the incidents.
The numbers are moving in the wrong direction fast. In the week between September 7 and Sunday, 22 shootings with 28 victims were reported citywide — more than double the same week in 2025, when 10 shootings left 11 victims, NYPD data shows. The Bronx alone accounted for 14 of those incidents.
And it's not just New York. In Chicago's Humboldt Park, shooters in two vehicles — including a stolen Acura — jumped out and opened fire on a crowd Sunday, leaving six wounded and an 18-year-old man dead after being shot a dozen times, the Chicago Tribune reported. Police recovered 70 rifle and handgun shell casings. The youngest victim was 14. No one is in custody.
Year-to-date, New York's shootings are down from 2025. Tell that to the teenager bleeding out behind a housing project, or the seniors who survived a drive-by over a game of dominoes. The city has no shortage of money for hotel rooms and legal services for migrants. For the people actually paying the bill, the return on that investment is a street corner and a prayer.
