Murder Rate Soars Over 24 Hours

On Monday, Mayor Bloomberg proudly announced that [NYC is still the safest large city] to live in, according to the FBI. The latest official crime statistics through Sunday reveal that overall [serious crime is down eight percent](http://www.amny.com/news/local/crime/am-shootings0608,0,3956484.story?coll=am-topheadlines) compared to the same period last year, and [homicides are down 15.1 percent](http://www.1010wins.com/pages/556100.php?contentType=4&contentId=587971)—191 from 225. But just this week, [seven lives were claimed](http://www.nysun.com/article/56136) over the course of nine hours: Three men were gunned down while gathered on a stoop in Brooklyn on Wednesday; also on Wednesday, police responding to a 911 call found the bodies of a man and a woman in bed in their Brooklyn apartment in an apparent murder-suicide; and a Harlem shooting left two men dead after what may have been a dispute over drugs early Thursday morning.