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Shootings on the Rise in Crown Heights, NYPD Stats Show

 Nine people were shot in Crown Heights from May 12 to June 8, compared to just one person shot over the same time last year, according to NYPD data.
Nine people were shot in Crown Heights from May 12 to June 8, compared to just one person shot over the same time last year, according to NYPD data.
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CROWN HEIGHTS — The number of people shot in the 77th Precinct has spiked this spring compared to the same time last year — and four more victims hit by gunfire within a 12-hour period this week will soon be added to the list, police said.

Nine people were shot in Crown Heights from May 12 to June 8 — the most recent period for which data is available — compared with just one person shot during the same time last year, according to NYPD data.

Todd Edward Wilks, 37, was one of these victims, police said. Wilks died after being shot multiple times May 29 on Albany Avenue near St. Johns Place. The death was ruled a homicide, according to the office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

Four of these victims were struck May 31 in St. Johns Park at an "Old Timers' Day" reunion event for former tenants of the nearby Albany Houses, police said. A teen aiming for someone unconnected to the party opened fire, 77th Precinct Capt. Peter Rose said.

Three men and a woman in their 30s were shot, 1010 WINS reported, including a 31-year-old man who was in critical condition after being hit in the chest, leg and arm.

Information on arrests and the victims' condition was not immediately available.

Not included in the statistics that cover the northern part of Crown Heights are four separate shootings that took place in 12 hours Sunday night and Monday morning, one of which left a man dead in his kitchen with a gunshot wound to the head, police said. In the three other incidents, two men and one woman were shot in the legs, officers said. One of these victims was shot at a barbecue on St. Johns Place between Washington and Classon avenues, police said.

The increase in the number of shooting victims comes as Police Commissioner Bill Bratton spoke about crime trends in an interview with The New York Times.

“God forbid we had 30 more shootings than we had last year,” he said. “People tend to forget what this place looked like in the 1990s.”

The number of people shot in Crown Heights had dropped 84 percent this year through June 8, compared to the same period in 1993, NYPD statistics show.