Man shot to death New Year's Day in Queens

The New Year had barely begun when shots rang out Saturday morning, apparently claiming New York City's first homicide victim of 2011. On a street corner in South Richmond Hill, Queens, where baseball fields, single-family homes and auto-body shops live side by side, police found a 28-year-old man lying on the ground, shot in the neck and chest.

Officers went to the location by the Phil "Scooter" Rizzuto Park after they heard shots fired about 5:30 a.m., police said. Paramedics took the man to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

Police had not identified the victim Saturday afternoon because the family had not yet been notified, and police said the investigation was ongoing.

The homicide appeared to be the first of the year, but police said they hadn't begun to number them.

The murder rate in New York City rose last year after many years on a downward trajectory that made the city a safer place. Murders had increased to 516 in 2010 through Dec. 19, the most recent statistics available on the NYPD's website, compared with 471 in all of 2009. It's still far lower than the 2,262 murders recorded in 1990. A total count for 2010 was not available Saturday, police said. Rapes and robberies also increased in 2010 while property crimes fell, according to police statistics.