The Bronx’s first homicide victim of 2023 was found four hours after the ball dropped in Times Square. What did the rest of the year hold?

This data was compiled and analyzed by the Bronx Times. All data is based on reports by the New York City Office of the Deputy Commission, Public Information (DCPI) and the NYPD from Jan. 1, 2023 through Dec. 29, 2023. Figures are preliminary and subject to change, further analysis or revision by DCPI, the NYPD and/or the Bronx Times.

On Dec. 30 at 1 Fordham Plaza in the Bronx, local organizations will hold a day of remembrance for gun-related homicide victims from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Participants will release balloons in memory of community members who have died in homicides in 2023.

While many Bronxites were enjoying their New Year’s festivities on Jan. 1, 2023, 63-year-old Sergio Garcia was found stabbed to death outside an apartment building in Mount Eden. Police found the first Bronx homicide victim of 2023 just four hours into the new year.

Garcia’s death by homicide was the first reported in the borough this year, according to data from DCPI and the NYPD.

The Bronx Times has identified 102 homicide incidents resulting in 107 individual deaths from Jan. 1, 2023 through Dec. 29, 2023. The NYPD reported 119 murders in the Bronx this year from Jan. 1 through Dec. 29. Many of these Bronx homicides made headlines throughout the city, although some were barely covered. Here are the Bronx Times’ findings — from cases that generated national attention to those that went unreported.

The youngest homicide victim

On May 28, cops found 3-month-old Genevieve Comager unconscious and unresponsive in a wooded area near West 161st Street and the Major Deegan Expressway near Yankee Stadium. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

According to reporting by WABC-TV, authorities had been searching for the infant after a family member living with her at a homeless shelter reported her missing.

About two weeks later, the Bronx District Attorney’s Office indicted the baby’s parents — 23-year-old Damion Comager and 20-year-old Ivana Paolozzi — for their daughter’s killing. Damion Comager allegedly shook the 3-month-old to death, then the pair dressed the baby, put her in a stroller, went to the wooded area, put her body in bags, and left her there.

Damion Comager allegedly confessed to killing his daughter, and led detectives to the location of her body, according to the DA.

“The alleged actions of these defendants are outrageous,” DA Darcel Clark said in the indictment announcement. “They showed complete disregard for this innocent child, both in life and death. We will seek justice for little Genevieve.”

The Bronx Times identified six children under 18 years old killed in Bronx homicides in 2023. In addition to Comager, those include:

Josue Lopez-Ortega, 15, who was found on Jan. 19 outside the Police Athletic League (PAL) New South Bronx Center in Longwood, after a person parked an SUV across the street, got out, and opened fire on a group of people leaving the facility;
Corde Scott, 15, who died by “trauma to the neck area” in a Parkchester apartment and was found on Jan. 23;
Kymani Woods, 17, who was found on April 10 after a shooting inside the Burke Avenue and White Plains Road subway station in north Allerton;
Nicholas Dominici, 1, who died of a fentanyl overdose at Divino Niño Day Care in Kingsbridge on Sept. 15;
And Kayden Rivera, 5, who was found murdered along with two other adult family members in their Port Morris apartment on Nov. 26.

The oldest homicide victim

On Sept. 17, on-duty police officers heard gunshots at the intersection of West 168th Street and Ogden Avenue in Highbridge, according to the NYPD. When they arrived on the scene they found 80-year-old Marcelino Valerio dead with a gunshot wound to the head.

Later on Oct. 5, police arrested Melvin Java, a 46-year-old Pennsylvania resident, for the killing. He was booked on preliminary charges of murder, manslaughter, and criminal possession of a weapon, DCPI reported.

Femicides

While the vast majority of borough homicides tracked this year were between adult male suspects and adult male victims, the Bronx continues to report the highest domestic violence rates in New York City. Femicide — the killing of women and girls by their (generally male) intimate partners or other family members — has been classified by many as an epidemic.

Information from the Bronx DA’s Office showed that more than 9,500 domestic violence incidents were reported in the Bronx in 2021. Additionally, NYPD statistics indicate that from 2015 to 2020, eight out of the top 15 community districts in New York City with the highest rates of intimate partner homicides were from the Bronx — in neighborhoods that include Claremont, Crotona Park, Melrose, Morrisania, Bathgate and Belmont. The issue spans continents; one woman or girl is killed globally by someone in her own family every 11 minutes, according to the United Nations.

The Bronx Times identified nine adult women whose deaths were marked as homicides in Bronx NYPD precincts this year. Those include:

Lisette Gomez, 38, who was allegedly strangled to death by her boyfriend in Melrose on March 21;
An unidentified female who cops found semi decomposed in a plastic bin on June 9 in Wakefield;
A 39-year-old woman who was found with stab wounds to the torso at the intersection of White Plains Road and East 220th Street in Olinville on July 7;
Lashawn Andrews, 24, who officers found dead with a gunshot wound to the face at an apartment building in the West Bronx on Aug. 20;
Gina Cooks, 29, who was killed in a double stabbing homicide with 45-year-old Roberto Jiminez, and found in Jerome Park on Aug. 25;
Cindy Maxwell, 45, who police found dead on Aug. 26 with gunshot wounds to the torso while responding to a wellness check at a building in Allerton;
Enriqueta Rivera, 71, who died at an area hospital on Sept. 14 after cops found her with a gunshot wound to the back in Port Morris;
Zariah Hayes, 23, who also died at a local hospital on Sept. 14 after suffering multiple stab wounds to her neck;
And Hanoi Peralta, 33, who was stabbed to death in a triple homicide and found on Nov. 26 alongside her 5-year-old son Kayden Rivera, as well as 38-year-old Jonathan Rivera.

Homicide in New York City

The NYPD’s data portal CompStat shows the Bronx, which has a population of about 1.3 million, as the borough with the second highest murder rate citywide with 119 individual incidents year-to-date as of Dec. 29. Over the same date range, the portal reported 125 murders in Brooklyn, which has a population of nearly 2.6 million.

BOROUGH	2023	2022	Population estimate
Brooklyn	125	137	2.6 million
The Bronx	119	127	1.3 million
Manhattan	70	77	1.7 million
Queens	47	77	2.3 million

Staten Island

491,000

Below, the Bronx Times has identified 102 individual homicidal incidents in the Bronx from Jan. 1, 2023 through Dec. 29, 2023:

1.1.23	Sergio Garcia, 63
1.18.23	Nicholas Lewis, 21
1.19.23	Josue Lopez-Ortega, 15
1.21.23	Kadeem Corion, 33
1.23.23	Corde Scott, 15
1.24.23	Randell Timber, 25
1.29.23	Abdoukarim Sakolly, 27
1.29.23	Man, 26
2.6.23	Man, 56
2.7.23	Marquis Lane, 31

2.10.23	Jeremiah Smith, 24; Devren Smith, 37
2.11.23	Man, 27
2.13.23	Miguel Vargas, 22
2.15.23	Isaac Collins, 21
2.25.23	Man, 29
2.26.23	Achilles Baskin, 25
3.1.23	Derrick Hamlin, 51
3.10.23	Trevor Roberts, 33
3.19.23	Man, 21
3.19.23	Dayquon Simmons, 24

3.22.23	Lissette Gomez, 38
3.24.23	Tyquan Pleasant, 27
3.25.23	Darnell Johnson, 34
4.1.23	Andre Harry, 52
4.10.23	Kymani Woods, 17
4.11.23	Brian Wilson, 53
4.13.23	Eddie Floyd, 53
4.14.23	Yaya Kouyate, 48
4.18.23	Aboubacar Drame, 32
4.22.23	John Levestone, 37

4.25.23	Hector Burgos, 69
5.6.23	Ishberit Carrera, 24
5.6.23	Adama Camara, 28
5.6.23	Jefferson De la Cruz, 26
5.8.23	Jermaine Williams, 33
5.13.23	Unidentified male
5.15.23	Jerome, Burleigh, 18
5.17.23	Jeremy Valencia, 27
5.21.23	Juan Rojas Lopez, 27
5.21.23	Jose Morillo, 62

5.28.23	Genevieve Comager, 3 months
5.29.23	Clifford White, 42
5.31.23	Antoine Strong, 21
6.2.23	Nixon Rodriguez, 18
6.9.23	Unidentified female
6.10.23	Erasmo Pujols, 42
6.11.23	Jeremy Cancel, 34
3.7.22	Jose Bencosme, 23
6.17.23	Miguel Molina, 22
6.17.23	Isiah Johnson, 25

6.19. 23	Howard Ferguson, 48
6.19.23	Man, 27
6.19.23	Kevin Roberts, 56
6.22.23	Jermaine Jones, 33
6.24.23	Vlademir Perdomo, 34
6.27.23	Man, 28; Man, 32
6.29.23	Justin Rodriguez, 26
6.30.23	Richard Roberts, 52
6.30.23	Man, 56
7.4.23	Luis Cartagena, 26

7.5.23	Moise Figueroa, 18
7.6.23	Man, 28; Man, 32
7.7.23	Woman, 39
7.11.23	Anthony Gonzalez, 35
7.14.23	Denzel Plummer, 28
7.24.23	Man, 24
7.31.23	Man, 28
8.3.23	Anthony Iannuzzo, 64
8.5.23	Camilo Pabon, 29
8.19.23	Paul Bernardon, 40

8.20.23	Phillip Martinez, 36
8.20.23	Joshtiers Mora, 22
8.20.23	Lashawn Andrews, 24
8.25.23	Gina Cooks, 29; Roberto Jiminez, 45
8.25.23	Fausto Rodriguez, 40
8.26.23	Unidentified man
8.26.23	Cindy Maxwell, 45
9.1.23	Mario Fernandez, 50
9.2.23	Henry Reyes, 24
9.2.23	Man, 44

9.7.23	Angel Rojas, 30
9.12.23	Juan Martinez, 44
9.14.23	Enriqueta Rivera, 71
9.14.23	Zariah Hayes, 23
9.15.23	Nicholas Dominici, 1
9.17.23	Marcelino Valerio, 80
9.24.23	Jose Andres Rodriguez Gomez, 47
10.1.23	Cleveland Smith, 35
10.5.23	Anwar Stokes, 47
10.17.23	Jose Valarezo, 35

10.18.23	Unidentified man
10.27.23	Darren Joseph, 58
11.2.23	Timothy Dargan, 44
11.4.23	David Disla, 30
11.8.23	Romel Carey, 23
11.19.23	Courtney Howell, 28
11.25.23	Robert Jiminez, 23
11.25.23	Raymond Resto, 49
11.26.23	Jonathan Rivera, 38; Hanoi Peralta, 33; Kayden Rivera, 5
11.27.23	Man, 23