Violent crime continued to trend downward in Brooklyn in October after two promising months, according to the latest NYPD statistics, but gun violence and rape continued to present major issues in the borough.
Between Sept. 30 and Oct. 27, major felonies dropped by about 14% across the borough, compared to the same 28-day period last year. Reports of assault, robbery, and burglary were down boroughwide, though grand larceny auto, a stubborn outlier to downward crime trends, spiked 16% in the Brooklyn South patrol.
But six murders were reported across the borough in that period, exactly the same as last year, and gun violence spiked. Shootings were up 20% in Brooklyn South and more than 31% in Brooklyn North, for a total of 27 incidents across the borough — almost one a day.
On Oct. 12, a 27-year-old man was killed in a hail of bullets in Flatbush. Days later, an unknown gunman shot an 18-year-old man in the head at a Canarsie playground, leaving him in critical condition. Unrelated back-to-back shootings on Oct. 23 left one man wounded in East New York and another dead in Crown Heights.
Rape and other sex crimes also jumped in some areas. While rape was down by almost one-third in Brooklyn North, it rose by more than 100% in Brooklyn South — where 23 rapes were reported from Sept. 29-Oct. 27. Seven were reported in East Flatbush alone, according to the statistics.
None-rape sex crimes also increased by more than 23% in Brooklyn South and a whopping 80.6% in Brooklyn North. Sexual violence has been spiking sporadically across the borough since August.
Police reported several on-rape sex crimes on north Brooklyn’s subways in October. On Oct. 3, an unknown man asked an 18-year-old woman for directions inside the Clark Street subway station, then repeatedly grabbed her buttocks. Less than two weeks later, a man exposed himself to a 17-year-old girl on an M train at Myrtle Avenue-Broadway.
The Brooklyn North and Brooklyn South patrols saw very different months with regard to transit crime. Incidents were down by just over 11% in Brooklyn South — but jumped by 72.7% in Brooklyn North, for a total of 19 incidents in 28 days. According to police reports, those crimes included public lewdness, robbery, and assault.
The Utica Avenue-Crown Heights station saw two such incidents in less than a week — on Oct. 4, a 17-year-old was stabbed and robbed inside the station. Four days later, a passenger stabbed an MTA conductor on the platform. In Bay Ridge, an attacker stabbed a straphanger in the eye — seemingly unprovoked — before fleeing the station on Oct. 17.
Citywide crime trends were consistent with what was reported in Brooklyn. From Sept. 29-Oct. 27, murder rose slightly across the five boroughs year-over-year, and rape jumped by more thn 22%. Non-rape sex crimes were up almost 30% across the city, and shootings 12.3%.
