Five of the city’s police precincts account for one-fourth of all shootings — which are on the rise citywide, even as murder continues to drop. Click below to read the rest of the story.
A Daily News analysis of crime statistics found that gunplay is sharply segregated, with residents of East New York, Brooklyn, dodging bullets with a regularity that would be incomprehensible to upper East Siders.
“Gunshots in this area’s just like hearing the doorbell,†said Sade Kirkland, 21, a makeup artist who lives in East New York, where the 75th Precinct has recorded 28 people shot this year.
“People across the street are killing each other for nonsense.â€
NYPD stats through May 13, the most recent available, show that 500 people were shot citywide, a 6% uptick from the same period last year.
Not a single person was shot in 17 of the city’s 76 precincts, including the upper East Side and other upscale neighborhoods like Tribeca and Park Slope, and quiet enclaves like Bayside, Queens, and Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
It was a much different story, though, in the most trigger-happy precincts: the 75th and 67th in Brooklyn, the 48th and 40th in the Bronx, and the 113th in Queens.
Altogether, 127 people have been shot this year on that turf — about 25% of the citywide total.
Marlon Beckford, 50, lives in East Flatbush, where the 67th Precinct logged 29 people shot since Jan. 1. He won’t be sticking around for long.
“I’ve heard a few gunshots at night,†said Beckford, a technician. “I’ve called 911…
I know other neighbors have called, too.â€
He said the gunfire threatens to drive out the law-abiding.
“The working-class people are moving out,†he said. “When my lease runs out in September, I’m gone.â€
At the corner of Sutphin and Linden Blvds. in Jamaica, Queens, where 26-year-old Theodore Thomas was shot to death March 25, people were not surprised to learn that the local precinct, the 113th, was No. 5 in the city for shooting victims.
“Someone’s always getting shot around here,†said Margaret
Petersen, 57, who has lived in the neighborhood her entire life and claims to hear gunshots three times a week.
She said she has seen more cops on foot patrol in recent weeks — a development that hasn’t pleased everyone.
Kevin Drawhorne, 18, said officers hassle him during the day, but were not around when an acquaintance was gunned down in March.
“Go after the people with guns, not us,†he said.
There has been an 11% jump citywide in the number of stop, question and frisk reports this year, but they are not necessarily most prevalent in the areas with the most shootings.
East New York’s 75th Precinct was No. 2 in the city for “stop and frisks†for the first four-plus months of this year and is No. 2 for shootings.
But there was no other overlap between the top five precincts for shootings and the top five for stops.
The NYPD says its stop, question and frisk policy has led to a falling murder rate and more gun seizures. Homicides are down 21% this year, with 132 slayings on the books.
