First slay ofo the year in East NY

This year’s record murder-free streak in crime-riddled East New York ended Sunday when a man was fatally shot during a family argument, police sources said.

Jahimel Gayle, 37, was found shot in the neck and shoulder inside a first-floor apartment on Hendrix Street near Sutter Avenue around 12 p.m. — the first homicide of the year for the Brooklyn neighborhood’s 75th Precinct.

“We kind of didn’t want to talk about [the no-murder record] because we didn’t want to jinx it,” said a 47-year-old resident who gave only her first name, Betty.

“I was thanking God’’ for the lack of homicides, she said. “I spoke too soon.”

Last year, the precinct had 11 slayings, the city’s second most.

Authorities credited the lack of killings to a crackdown on gangs and a change in crooks’ habits.

“It is a combination of taking down gangs and the shift from street crimes like drugs to whitecollar crimes — stolen checks and credit-card fraud,” one Brooklyn cop said.

Sources said Gayle’s 32-year-old brother was taken into custody for questioning in Sunday’s slaying, which comes two days after the New York Times heralded the precinct’s no-slay stretch.