Death surge in the Bronx

A BLOODY AUGUST has erased the city’s year-to-date decline in homicides, according to NYPD data through Sunday, just a month after officials touted a steep drop in killings.

Cops investigated 222 slayings this year through the weekend — the exact number investigated during the same time period last year, records show. There were 199 homicides over the same time period in 2014.

Police officials, while lamenting that every homicide is one too many, say the city is much safer than it used to be. And it’s still the safest big city in America.

“New York City continues to be the safest it’s been in decades with murder and shooting incidents down over 80% since 1994,” a police spokesman said.

The recent uptick in murders was fueled by a spike in the Bronx, which saw a 23% increase in homicides from 56 at the end of Aug. 21, 2015, to 69 through Sunday. Staten Island, over the same time span, saw a jump in murders from nine to 17, an increase of 88%.

“We may have reached the irreducible number,” said former Chicago police commander, author and unofficial NYPD historian Tom Reppetto. “We are never going to have a city with zero murders. There will always be people in a city of 8 million-plus that will use guns or knives to settle their personal quarrels and carry out crimes.”

Three weeks ago, police brass said there was a nearly 6% drop in homicides. On July 31, the NYPD had investigated 192 killings — 12 fewer than the same time period last year.

Then came August — and with it several high-profile killings, including the rape and murder of 30-year-old jogger Karina Vetrano in Howard Beach, Queens, on Aug. 2 and the Aug. 13 execution of a imam and his friend in nearby Ozone Park.

As of Sunday, 30 people were slain in the city this month, officials said. There were four murders on Aug. 14.

By Tuesday morning, the number of murders had dropped by three — from 226 in 2015 to 223 this year, cops said.

Reppetto said the small uptick shouldn’t set off any alarm bells, adding that the city numbers should be viewed in a broader context. “Some cities are way up in murder,” Reppetto said, referencing Chicago, which has seen 425 murders this year — almost double the amount of homicides than New York, which has 5 million more residents.