February 17, 2026 THE BRONX, NY is bleeding. While the rest of the city looks toward spring, this borough is trapped in a winter of staggering violence. In the first two weeks of February alone, a wave of gunfire has left a trail of bodies, shattered families, and a police department scrambling to contain a crisis that is officially "off the charts."

The Human Cost: A Hero and a Hunt

The statistics are chilling, but the faces behind them are heartbreaking. Among the fallen is Christopher Redding, a 16-year-old football standout whose life was snuffed out on February 11.

Redding didn’t die as a bystander; he died as a hero. His former coach, Christopher Lopez, revealed that the teen was shielding his friends from a hail of bullets at Broadway and West 238th Street. A 17-year-old has since been charged with his murder, but the hole left in the Kingsbridge community is permanent.

Meanwhile, the hunt continues for Alberto Frias, 27, who allegedly gunned down Adrian Dawodu on a crowded subway platform. In a sequence straight out of a noir thriller, police say Frias was caught on video fleeing to his apartment, frantically begging his girlfriend for a Lyft while accidentally dropping a spent shell casing in his own bedroom.

By The Numbers: A Borough Under Siege

The data confirms what residents already feel: the Bronx is the city's most dangerous frontline.

The "Great Split": NYPD’s Radical Solution

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch isn't just sending more patrols; she’s redrawing the map. Admitting that the Bronx has "experienced more crime per capita than any other borough," Tisch is preparing to split the Bronx into two distinct police sections this spring.

The goal? A massive infusion of manpower to address a workload that currently rivals or exceeds Manhattan and Queens combined.

"Too Early" for a Trend?

Despite the body count, the NYPD’s official stance remains cautiously clinical. A spokesperson noted that six weeks of data is a "statistically short time frame" and warned against labeling this a permanent upward trend.

But for the families of Amir Ahmad—found shot in the chest during a robbery—or the man stripped of his gold chain at a Bartow Ave gas station, the "infancy of 2026" has already been plenty old enough to change their lives forever.