CIVIC CENTER — There has been a 10 percent increase in murders this year and a surge in shootings during the past month, NYPD officials said Monday.
So far, the city has had 109 reported murders this year, compared with 99 during the same time span in 2014, according to the NYPD.
There were also 28 more shooting incidents since April 14 compared with the same monthlong span last year, police records show. In all, there have been 351 shootings this year, compared to 323 in 2014, police said.
The shootings were concentrated in eastern Brooklyn, particularly East New York, the central Bronx and northern Manhattan in Harlem and Washington Heights, according to police statistics.
Police have also investigated an increased number of shooting incidents in Clinton Hill and Fort Greene.
Two people were shot outside the Greenlight Bookstore in Fort Greene on May 5.
The following day a man was shot in the stomach on Carlton Avenue near Fulton Street.
There were 23 people killed citywide in the past month, which is three more than during the same period last year, a nearly 8 percent increase.
“Where we are seeing increases in the murder category is gang-motivated murders,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Dermot Shea said Monday.
There have been 11 more gang-motivated murders so far this year, Shea added.
