The kind of violence associated with summer in the city didn’t wait for the official beginning of the season. In May, four young Ghanaian American men were shot outside of the Tracey Towers apartment complex early on a Friday night.

Though all four victims survived the shooting, the incident put a spotlight on an ongoing, and increasingly violent, rivalry between the youth at Tracey Towers and those living in the Knox-Gates neighborhood, just across Mosholu Parkway. Not to mention the problem of gun violence in the Bronx in general.

In connection with the shooting, police from the 52nd Precinct arrested two teenagers, both of whom were known to spend much of their time in Knox-Gates. Charges were later dropped when the victims refused to identify the suspects.

Police said the victims and shooters were both spoiling for a fight.

But one of the victims, Farid Haruna, a 22-year-old college student who recovered fully after being shot in the chest, said he and three friends were simply “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

It’s still unclear exactly what happened that night.

Regardless, Tracey and Knox-Gates residents both acknowledged the ongoing turf battle, saying tensions had been simmering for the past six or seven years and that nobody knew how the beef started originally. Some Tracey parents said they wouldn’t even send their kids across the parkway to Jerome Avenue without supervision for fear of violence.

Following the shooting, Tracey tenants held several emotional meetings to discuss the shooting and how similar incidents could be prevented in the future. Local elected officials came out to show their support. Police stopped short of making the area an Impact Zone, which would have flooded the neighborhoods with foot-patrolling rookie cops, but new 52nd Precinct Commanding Officer James Alles said his unit would pay closer attention to the situation.

In the end, a task force of officials, residents and community leaders called the Safe Streets Initiative was formed to brainstorm and implement solutions. Mostly, after hearing from area youth, the group focused on creating more activities and programs to help keep kids off the street and out of trouble. With help from elected officials, the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center (MMCC) was able to add more programming at Tracey and Knox-Gates (where MMCC took over control of the COVE, a struggling youth center on Gates Place).

While Tracey has stayed relatively violence-free since the shooting, the situation in Knox-Gates has grown progressively worse. In July, a 38-year-old man was shot to death in the Mosholu Parkway woods, which surrounds Knox-Gates. In September, a 17-year-old Knox-Gates resident was shot in the back while walking down Gates Place and is now paralyzed. Both incidents were drug related, police said. At the end of November, a 22-year-old man was arrested for gun possession on Gates Place.

While the Tracey Towers-Knox-Gates tension appears to have dissipated, the problem of community — and especially drug-related — violence remains.