ArcaMax

It was midday a week ago Saturday when Daryus Clarke was doing his job as a clerk at the Plug Smoke Shop in Queens, New York.

Three individuals dressed entirely in black walked into the store. One had a gun.

As reported by CBS New York, they took "$100 in cash and $50 worth of merchandise ... and shot Clarke in the chest." Clarke died from this wound.

The next day, just before midnight, as reported by the New York Post, an argument broke out at a delicatessen in the Bronx. It culminated in a 24-year-old man being shot in the stomach and a 42-year-old man being shot in the leg. The 24-year-old died.

Last Monday, 26-year-old Dion Reid was standing in front of a mini market in Brooklyn. At about 2:10 p.m., according to the Daily News, he "was shot in the ankle and hip" and bled to death.

That night, as reported by the New York Post, a "37-year-old man was discovered unconscious and bleeding at around 11 p.m. in the first-floor stairwell of a building" in Brooklyn. He "had suffered a gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced dead at the scene."

In the wee hours of Saturday morning, the Daily News reported, "a fight inside a Bronx nightspot escalated into gunfire." A "34-year-old man was shot multiple times and was found wounded inside his car." He was brought to a hospital, but he died.

Quamane Rogers was released on parole last June after he served a prison term because, as the Daily News reported, he "shot a 29-year-old man near a playground." Last Saturday at 2:50 p.m., Rogers himself was shot in the face and died in a neighborhood on Staten Island.

All told, according to the New York Police Department, eight people were murdered in New York City in the seven days from March 20 to March 26. So far this year, 84 people have been murdered in that city.

In 2022, as this column noted last week, there were 438 murders and non-negligent manslaughters in New York City.

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