For five years, from 2020 to 2025, gun-related crime in Niagara Falls was on a steep decline.
But 2026 has been a whole different story.
While the raw numbers remain low, it’s the percentage changes that have been unsettling to members of law enforcement. What has also raised concerns for police has been the increasing use of semi-automatic assault-style weapons and suspected shooters and victims in their mid-to-late teens.
After having no gun-involved homicides in 2025, and only 1 in 2024, a pair of shooting deaths on the July 4th weekend has resulted in a 300% increase in individuals killed by gun violence this year.
In the past week, Falls police have seized 11 illegal firearms in connection with their investigation of those homicides and a pair of shootings that left one teen wounded two weeks earlier after the Niagara Falls High School senior prom.
Searching outside a house near the corner of Aaron Griffin Way and Calumet Avenue, after the prom weekend shooting, Falls Police Crime Scene Unit (CSU) detectives located six 7.62 bullet casings in the roadway. That particular type of ammunition is used in an AK-47 semi-automatic rifle, the weapon of choice in many war zones around the world.
Spent shell casings recovered at the two holiday homicide scenes have led investigators to believe that semi-automatic handguns were involved in both of those murders.
The sudden rise in high-powered gun violence has left former Falls Police superintendent and current Gun Involved Violence Elimination (GIVE) Initiative coordinator John Faso searching for answers.
“New York’s Raise the Age law has been a factor,” Faso said. “There’s no deterrent now for juveniles. They’re out there committing adult crimes, but being treated like children who just made mistakes.”
The GIVE coordinator says Falls police detectives “know who (the shooters) are, but building cases against them, under Raise the Age, is complicated.
A search of social media sites shows Falls teens brazenly posting pictures that show off a wide range of firearms. Such posts apparently do not violate the social media sites’ terms of service on depictions of violence.
The five-year average of shooting incidents in the city, from 2020 to 2025, where victims were either hit or injured by gunfire, fell by 69% and 67%, respectively. This year, the number of shooting victims in the Falls has risen 125% from 4 last year to 9 this year.
Assaults involving a gun have risen 150%, from 4 last year to 10 this year.
Faso said the Falls is not alone in experiencing more gun violence and that some of the recent violence has flowed between the Cataract City and Buffalo.
“Buffalo is seeing increases similar to ours,” he said. “And we’re seeing (shooters and victims) moving between the cities. We have Falls kids being shot in Buffalo and Buffalo kids being shot up here.”
Over the July 4th weekend, Buffalo police investigated 11 shooting incidents with six victims wounded in the gunfire. It could not immediately be determined if any of the victims were from the Falls.
In the first six months of 2026, Falls police have responded to 8 calls of shots heard, 23 calls of shots fired and 13 reports of “a subject with a gun.” All are increases from 2025.