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Website Tracks How Many Days Since NYC's Last Murder

By Katie Honan | February 18, 2015 7:32am
 The site notes when the city has had its last murder. 
The site notes when the city has had its last murder. 
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MurdersIn.NYC

NEW YORK CITY — A new website is keeping track of how long the city can go without a homicide in the hopes of convincing New Yorkers not to kill each other.

Lok Fung, 33, got the idea for Murdersin.NYC after hearing the news about the recent 12-day streak without any homicides. He thought it might be a good place to keep track of what's going on in the city.

The software developer from Woodhaven built the site in seven or eight hours on Sunday, choosing the new .nyc domain address because he thought it would be easy to remember. 

By the time Fung had the website up, though, the streak was over. 

"Someone told me about [a] recent murder and I said, 'Oh, I have to set back the time again,'" he said, referring to the Feb. 13 shooting in Woodhaven of Eric Roman, who died from his injuries on Valentine's Day. 

"It was a little demoralizing but I thought people would want to know."

Murdersin.nyc keeps count of the number of murder-free days that have passed with a post that resembles a parking sign.

"Do your part to help make a new record," the site pleads.

Fung said he was inspired by signs in factories that remind people of the last time there was a workplace accident.  

He hopes the simple site will get New Yorkers thinking about crime in the city.

"I imagine having something like this — it puts an actual number in people's heads and they can think, 'Hey, maybe there's something we can do about it,'" he said.

"I'm not thinking something grandiose that it can have a very big impact, but hopefully it will have a little bit of impact."

He updates the site manually, linking to the most recent news coverage of homicides.

"I was just thinking, if anybody wants to know about murders and how many days it's been since, they can just come over to here," he said.