Espaillat remembers recent gun victims on House floor

U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat took the House floor on Tuesday to led a moment of silence for two New York Police Department officers who were killed in the line of duty during a reported domestic violence incident in Harlem last month.

Officers Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora served in the 32nd Precinct. But they weren’t the only gun violence victims the congressman pointed out.

“East Harlem is hurting,” Espaillat said, according to a transcript, “because we saw how a young woman — Krystal Bayron-Nieves, who worked in a Burger King — was shot and killed, even though she gave the money from the register to the person that held up the Burger King at gunpoint. She was still brutally shot and killed. 19 years old.”

Espaillat says he backs Mayor Eric Adams’ plan to target 700 people who are accused of committing at least 1,700 acts of violence using an illegal weapon. But doing that means cutting off gun supplies from the south, he said, and investing $50 million in summer youth jobs.

“We must all work together to resolve this epidemic of gun violence,” he said.