Gunplay and murder on the streets of the Big Apple have jumped sharply in the past month, police statistics show.
Slayings were up 13 percent, and shootings jumped nearly 10 percent for the 28 days ending Sunday, with 52 killings and 155 shootings, compared to 46 murders and 141 gun incidents during the same period last year.
The largest jump occurred in the Brooklyn South area, where 13 people were killed compared to just two during the same four weeks last year – a 550 percent leap.
The spike in shootings was partly due to a 70 percent jump in The Bronx, where there were 44 incidents, 18 more than last year.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, citing the city’s historic decline to record lows in every major crime category, said he believes the recent upturn is probably a “spurt” that does not foreshadow any ominous trend.
“We are still 20 victims below [the first eight months of] last year, which was a historically low year” with 571 killings, Kelly said, pointing out that the NYPD has accomplished its crime-fighting successes with several thousand fewer cops than it had just a few years ago.
“These things come in spurts,” he said. “We are always concerned about shootings and homicides, but gunplay historically ebbs and flows and I don’t see this as a trend and cause for undue concern.”
Meanwhile, crime overall in the city remains down about 5 percent in the first eight months of the year.
Murders dropped 5.7 percent, to 358 from 380 for the same period last year.
Subway crime, which had been moving upwards, is now down nearly 10 percent for the year, with 17,326 incidents compared to 19,220 for the first eight months of last year.
But felonies in the subways dropped by only one, to 2,158.
Officials say the NYPD’s show of force in the system, including searching straphangers’ bags since the July terrorist bombings in London, has played a key role.
“We believe criminals who may have entered the system have not,” Kelly said.