The March Report -- 43 murders make 3rd month of 2008 the deadliest so far...

Forty-three people were murdered in NYC in March 2008, bringing the total number of murders in the city this year to 110.

(As always, these are unofficial statistics. These are the murders I calculated by reading the city's newspaper every day. It's possible some murders are added or dropped from the official police stats. According to official NYPD stats, the number of murders in the city between January 1 and March 23d totals 99. That compares unfavorably with last year when there were only 82 murders in the same period, meaning -- according to the NYPD -- the murder rate this year is up 20.7% through March 23d.)

What stands out in regard to the March murders is....nothing. There was a strange numbness to the killings. Not a single murder gained any traction with the city's three newspapers which were obsessed with former Gov. Eliot Spitzer's bedroom activities and the massive crane collapse in midtown. It didn't seem to matter if a mother of three was gunned down accidentally or a Harlem business owner was found dead in his burning car out near Jamaica Bay. No murder resonated in the newspapers.

What did stand out is the phrase "black male shot." Thirty black males were killed in the month of March, and 26 of them were shot. Often, they were killed in Brooklyn which had a horrendous month. Twenty-three of the 42 murders occurred in Brooklyn last month.

Five of those who died were women. 

Here's how the monthly statistics break down:

RACE: 30 of the departed were black, 8 were Latino or Latina, 2 were Asian, 1 was white, and 1 was of unknown ethnicity.

BY BOROUGH: 23 of the departed were killed in Brooklyn, 8 in the Bronx, 8 in Queens, 2 in Manhattan, and 2 in Staten Island.

METHOD OF DEATH: 27 of the departed were shot, 7 were stabbed, 5 were beaten and/or strangled, and the rest died of unknown causes pending autopsies.

AGE: 19 of the departed were in their 20s, 11 were in their 30s, 4 were teenagers, 2 were in their 40s, and 2 were in their 50s. There was also a 2-month-old baby beaten or shaken to death.

** The two final murder victims who died on March 31st were:

-- Michael Wilmont, 27 of Elmont, L.I., who was gunned down last night outside 553 E. 108 Street in the Carnarsie section of Brooklyn. The Daily News carried a brief quoting police sources as saying Wilmont was feuding with some people who ambushed him outside the Breukelen Houses where Wilmont was visiting a girlfriend. He was taken to Brookdale Hospital where he died. No arrests.

-- An unidentified 37-year-old black male shot numerous times late Monday night in front of 190-46 112 Avenue in the Jamaica section of Queens. He was taken to Mary Immaculate Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. No arrests.

************************************************************