One thug – 5 shootings

HE LIVES by the gun — and cops are gunning for him and other career crooks as summer heats up.

Reputed Brooklyn gangbanger Alexander Williams is one of roughly 300 people the NYPD refers to as the worst of the worst, career criminals involved in three or more shootings over the last few years.

Williams, said to be a member of the Stack Money Goonz, has been linked to five shootings just this year, including one on his 19th birthday, according to police sources.

“This guy has been a major problem,” said a police source familiar with Williams’ alleged crimes. “He’s one of the reasons shootings are up.”

Indeed, the renegade Williams is a poster child for Police Commissioner Bill Bratton’s belief that a small number of people are responsible for this year’s citywide spike in gun violence.

Williams, who sources say has been arrested 16 times, is among those in a special NYPD dossier filled with people whose lives revolve around guns. They shoot people, get shot and use weapons to settle seemingly minor beefs or protect their gang’s turf.

The extra attention to Williams has paid off.

After he was released from Rikers Island when charges of shooting a rival’s sister were deferred, the NYPD questioned him about a different incident involving gunfire.

Williams wasn’t charged in that case, but cops said he had a gun on him — and now he is being held without bail back on Rikers.

Citywide, 123 people were murdered this year through May 24 — up from 107 during the same period in 2014. That’s a 15% spike.

Bratton (below) recently said gangs were linked to 45% of the city’s shootings, and the increase in gun violence is largely bad guys shooting bad guys in 15 precincts.

“It’s criminals, career criminals, killing and shooting other career criminals,” Bratton said. “The rest of the city, your chances of being the victim of gun violence if you’re not a criminal . . . are very, very slim.”

But that declaration has raised eyebrows at 1 Police Plaza, where some feel Bratton minimized the problem.

“A lot of people live in those 15 precincts,” said a high-ranking supervisor. “And with the summer coming, who knows what’s going to happen?”

To combat a surge in shootings as temperatures rise, the NYPD will implement Summer All Out, a blue flood of more than 400 officers in crime-prone areas. A similar program was effective last year, sources said, and the NYPD hopes its dossier will foster a focused effort.

Williams, at least, will likely be spending much of his summer in jail as he fights his case. Ezra Levy, lawyer for the alleged gunslinger, said prosecutors hadn’t proved he was a member of a gang.

But he has been labeled a person of interest in four shootings this year, as investigators struggle to get witnesses to cooperate, sources said.