The Bronx is bloodying the Big Apple.
The borough has tallied 83 murders this year — nearly a third of NYC’s 261 homicides through Aug. 7, NYPD data show.
It accounts for 32% of all slayings despite having only 18% of the city’s population.
The deadliest precinct in the borough is the 44th — home to the Grand Concourse, Bronx Terminal Market, and Yankee Stadium. It has seen 16 murders this year, 33% more than the 12 logged in the same period last year.
Next are the 48th and 52nd Precincts, with 11 murders. The 48th, which sits in the heart of the borough and includes Belmont, East Tremont, and the campus of Fordham University, has seen a 22% climb from 2021 (eight murders), while the 52nd — which covers Kingsbridge, Norwood, Bronx Park, and University Heights — is up a whopping 267% from the same time last year, when there were three slayings. The precinct is where 21-year-old “Law & Order” extra Jayquan Lewis was gunned down one year ago, on Aug. 13.
The deadliest day of the week in the Bronx is Saturday, when 24 murders have occurred, NYPD data show. The safest is Sunday, when five slayings took place, according to the department stats.
The bloodshed in the Bronx this year includes an 11-year-old girl killed in May after getting caught in the crossfire of a shooting on a street corner; a 20-year-old shot dead two days later in broad daylight during a May motorcycle sale in Mott Haven; and an “angel” off-duty cop stabbed to death in June by her estranged husband.
Recently, a man was fatally stabbed July 30 after a brawl with an employee outside a Bronx smoke shop in the Fordham section, police said.
The Bronx is a “battle zone” because cops are “overwhelmed” trying to contain raging gang activity that has gotten worse amid “street crime left unchecked,” said Michael Alcazar, a retired NYPD detective who is now an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
“The Bronx looks like Brazil with out-of-control Favela-style gangs, drive-by shootings, two- man robbery teams on mopeds,” Alcazar said, adding that the lack of quality of life enforcement has “emboldened the bad guys.”
He continued: “New York City is in a decline in its fight against lawbreakers — and the Bronx is leading the charge.”
In January, the Post exclusively reported that the NYPD was rolling out its new plainclothes unit as part of Mayor Eric Adams’ crackdown on illegal guns and targeting 30 of the Big Apple’s most violent precincts. Ten of the 12 Bronx precincts made the list.
THE BRONX IS BURNING
The borough accounted for a third of the city’s murders in 2022. Here are killings by precinct:
- 44th/16
- 48th/11
- 52nd/11
- 47th/8
- 40th/8
MURDERS BY BORO:
Borough/2022/2021/Percentage
Bronx 83/85/-2.%
Brooklyn 80/86/-7%
Manhattan 49/56/-13%
Queens 45/49/-8%
SI 4/8/-50%
Source: NYPD (through Aug. 7)
Source: NYPD data
