Mayor: NYC shootings down; Kelly unsure why

After a bloody summer in which a number of people, including youngsters, were killed or wounded by gunfire, shootings in New York City appear to have stabilized and may actually be declining, officials said.

As of Sept. 2, police said there were 1,001 shootings, compared with 968 by the same time in 2011, a 3.2 percent increase. But in three weeks, the shootings leveled off. By Sept. 23 shootings numbered 1,082, a static trend compared with 1,086 in the same period a year ago, according to NYPD data.

The relative cooling off of gunplay on the streets prompted Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday to contend that shootings were down.

NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said Friday that he had no explanation for why shootings have declined from their previous increase.

"We obviously put in place a lot of programs in our attempt to address that," Kelly said. "We use overtime, Operation Impact, going to areas that see a spike in shootings."

A spate of shootings from June through August shocked the city. In July, 4-year-old Lloyd Norman was shot dead as he and his family watched a basketball game in the Bronx. Two men were also injured by the gunfire.

In July, Isaiah Rivera, 3, was grazed in the leg when two gunmen entered a playground in Bedford-Stuyvesant and shot at a group of men playing dice. Isaiah recovered, and police arrested two men.

"We do see rises and falls, it is not an exact science to say why shootings went up or down. When it goes down, we like to take credit," added Kelly.

Joseph Giacalone, a former NYPD officer and an adjunct instructor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said the unusually warm weather this year may have contributed to the shootings by drawing people outside. He also said a decrease in the police practice of stopping and frisking people has made them feel freer to carry guns.

The decline in shootings, murders and some other serious crimes may mean that New York City is approaching a new low level for crime, said criminology professor Franklin Zimring of the University of California at Berkeley School of Law.

If those levels are maintained, it bodes well for the future of the city, said Zimring, author of "The City that Became Safe: New York's Lessons for Urban Crime and Its Control."