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8 shot, 4 dead in the last 3 weeks

8 shot, 4 dead in the last 3 weeks

While overall felony crime remains down in East Flatbush, violent crime has spiked, leaving the 67th Precinct command vigilant heading into summer.

In the last three weeks, there were three shooting incidents where eight people were shot resulting in four deaths, said Inspector Inspector Corey Pegues, commanding officer of the precinct at the recent community council meeting.

A father and son, along with a third man were killed during a gunfight on Avenue A near East 90th Street in one of the incidents on June 9.

A gang shooting at a house party on East 54th Street left three shot and one dead, Pegues said.

For the year to date, there have been nine reported murders as compared to seven at this time in 2008, according to recent police statistics.

The escalating violence comes as the most active precinct in Patrol Borough Brooklyn South is seeing a 13 percent reduction in overall crime for the year.

Leading this decrease is grand larceny, which is down about 28 percent for the year with 222 reported incidents so far in 2009 as compared to 306 at this time last year.

Auto theft is down about 21 percent with 96 reported incidents so far this year as compared to 121 at this time in 2008; and robbery is down 14.5 percent with 194 incidents reported so far in 2009 as compared to 227 at this time last year.

Burglary is down about six percent with 174 incidents so far in 2009 as compared to 185 at this time last year.

Meanwhile, rape is up slightly with 11 reported incidents as opposed to nine last year, and felony assault is up about 6 percent with 209 reported incidents so far this year compared to 197 at this time in 2008.

Despite the recent violence, shootings are down for the year with 28 incidents reported so far in 2009 as compared to 24 at this time last year.

Pegues said his strategy for keeping summer crime down is to focus on parties and nightclubs, in which random violence often erupts.

“This week I met with all the bar and club owners to make sure they have proper security officers and at 4 a.m. all serving stops,” said Pegues.

Pegues said this means at 3 a.m. the last song should be played and all the lights go on at 4 a.m..

“We’re just worried about keeping people from being shot,” he said.

Pegues said there are also about 400 illegal social clubs in the precinct and the vice squad will be on the lookout for closing them down.

There were 27 people shot in or outside clubs last year, he said.

The precinct is also dealing with a shortfall of about 40 cops assigned to the “Impact zone,” an area in a precinct deemed high crime and flooded with cops.

In the 67th Precinct this area is from Church to East New York Avenues, and from Remsen Avenue to East 95th Street.

The precinct did have 100 extra cops in the “Impact Zone” but 40 were transferred to the 60th Precinct in Coney Island after a crime upsurge in that neighborhood, Pegues said.

Pegues said the 60 remaining cops in this area will have to stretch out and be more heavily supervised.