Violent crime was down in Brooklyn in May, according to the latest NYPD data, as city officials celebrated a citywide drop in murders and shootings in the first five months of the year.
Across the borough, major felonies — defined by the NYPD as murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny, and grand larceny auto — were down more than 7% year-over-year during the 28-day period from May 5 to June 1. A total of 2,324 incidents were reported, compared to 2,517 during the same period in 2024.
In the first five months of the year, New York City saw the lowest number of shootings and murders in recorded history, according to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, and set a record for the lowest number of shootings and murderers in the month of May.
Across Brooklyn, murders were down by more than 66% in May, from nine reported between May 5-June 1 last year and three this year; and shootings were down 45%, from 33 to 18.
That decrease was focused on the Brooklyn North patrol, which covers 10 precincts from Greenpoint to East New York. Last month, just 10 shootings were reported in the patrol, down 61.5% from 26 shootings in May 2024.
In Brooklyn South — which encompasses 13 precincts between Coney Island and Park Slope — shootings were up 14.3%, from seven to eight.
Tish attributed the drop in shootings and murders to a yearslong effort by the NYPD to remove illegal guns from the city streets and to the city’s new Summer Violence Reduction Plan, which took effect on May 5.
The plan sent more than 1,500 officers to 70 “summer deployment zones” across 57 precincts prone to “high priority crimes” and shootings, per the NYPD. Violent crimes and shootings tend to increase in the summer months in New York City.
“We will not let up,” Tisch said in a statement. “Our summer violence reduction plan is bold and aggressive and designed to continue driving the same historic safety gains.”
Despite the statistical improvement, the borough did see a number of violent incidents in May. Three triple shootings rocked the borough on the weekend of May 17, leaving five people injured and one dead. A May 26 shooting left a Crown Heights man in critical condition, and a 16-year-old was shot in the stomach during an incident at Breevort Houses in Bed-Stuy on May 31.
Some nabes also saw increases in assault, rape, and grand larceny. Assault was up .6%, from 308 to 310, in Brooklyn South; but dropped by more than 10% in Brooklyn North. Still, assault increased in 11 of Brooklyn’s 23 precincts — six in Brooklyn South, five in Brooklyn North.
In Brooklyn North, rape was up by nearly 30% year-over-year, from 21 incidents reported from May 5-June 1 last year to 27 during the same period this year. Rates of UCR Rape and other sex crimes, though, declined across the board.
Outside of the major felonies, transit crime ticked up 9.5% in Brooklyn North, though it declined in Brooklyn South.
On May 11, a 41-year-old man was fatally stabbed onboard an MTA bus in East New York, and a 25-year-old woman was stabbed multiple times during an unrelated attack onboard a Borough Park D train on May 22. On May 27, a man was stabbed in the chest at the Grant Avenue station in East New York.
