Homicides

violent crime rates.”

Halfway into this year, New York was on pace for its lowest annual homicide total since 1951, but a spate of killings in the second half of the year sent the tally higher.

In October, a homeless man allegedly beat four men to death with a metal pipe as they slept on the Manhattan streets. Days later, four people were killed at a Brooklyn gambling den.

The city’s increased homicide total can be traced to spikes in just a few neighborhoods.

In the Crown Heights precinct, where the gambling den was located, there have been 14 killings this year after just two at the same point last year.

There were at least six other fatal shootings and several deadly assaults, including that of a 74-year-old man found beaten at a nursing home.

In Queens, a precinct covering parts of Jamaica, St. Albans and Hollis has seen a threefold increase in homicides over last year, going from five to 15.

The victims include three people killed in a Nov. 21 arson fire and a 3-year-old girl killed in May when her father allegedly torched their car.

The Brooklyn precinct covering Coney Island and Brighton Beach has had six killings this year after posting none last year. A precinct in the Bronx neighborhood east of Yankee Stadium has seen its year-over-year total double, from six to 12.

“We continue to see a high percentage committed by gangs and gang involvement,” police commissioner Dermot Shea said at a crime briefing this month.

In recent years, the police department has been aggressive in seizing illegal guns and increasing patrols in problem areas.

It has also transformed how officers interact with residents, implementing a strategy that pushes officers out of their patrol cars and onto streets to build bonds in the communities they police.

Across the crime categories, such as shootings, robberies and felony assaults, have trended slightly higher this year.

One unanswered question is what effect, if any, approaching changes to the bail system will have on crime statistics and homicide totals.