A once-sleepy section of Queens considered one of the city’s safest has seen a staggering 62% surge in murders this year — the only NYPD command in the five boroughs to see an increase in killings, new police data show.
Twenty-one people have been killed in Queens North — a command that encompasses eight precincts in Forest Hills, Flushing, Astoria and Elmhurst — up from 13 in the same time span last year.
Equally troubling, the area experienced a 60% rise in shooting victims so far this year — with 31, up from 20.
One of the most shocking murders occurred in Jackson Heights on the border between the 115th and 110th Precincts.
Illegal migrant Edwin Cruz-Gomez, 38, struck teenager Jhoanny Alvarez on a sidewalk with his 2009 Chevy Suburban after he made unwanted sexual advances toward the teen and her mom on Sept. 13, cops said.
The Honduran national, who was intoxicated, got into a brawl with the teen, her mom and two other relatives, cops said.
Cruz-Gomez then drove onto the sidewalk and “intentionally” mowed down the teen, her mom and another relative, cops said. He was charged with murder.
Kicked out of the US in 2005, Cruz-Gomez returned illegally at a later date, officials said. ICE took him into custody after he was busted for DUI in Long Island in 2013, but he was released into an alternative program and disappeared, federal authorities said.
The 115th Precinct also saw a horrified 21-year-old woman shot repeatedly on Sept. 12 as she ran for her life into a building on 96th Street near Astoria Boulevard in Flushing where she was living with her aunt and grandmother, cops said.
Dashanna Donovan had ended an abusive relationship with a man in South Carolina and he has become the main suspect in her death, officials said.
Her mom, Helena Hypolite, told The Post Thursday that she tried to get her daughter away from her ex-beau who “ran up on her and startled her” outside the home.
“She screamed and ran into the house,” the heartbroken mom said. “He ran her down and shot her five times in the bathroom. He came to kill her.”
The suspect, whose name hasn’t been released, allegedly once beat her so badly with a rake and a hose that her arm was broken and she needed staples in her head, the mom said.
There had been no arrest as of Friday.
“I miss my daughter,” Hypolite said. “I will never be the same again. Every time the door bell rings, my 6-year-old ask, ‘Is that Deshanna?’”
And in the normally quiet 112th Precinct in Forest Hills, Jean Rios, 19, was found dead in the street with a gunshot to his chest near 64th Road and Grand Central Parkway at 7:40 p.m. on Sept. 28, cops said. There have been no arrests and police have not specified a motive.
The surge in violence could be a result of fighting crime in neighboring commands, said Michael Alcazar, a retired NYPD detective and John Jay College adjunct professor.
“Historically, the precincts in Queens North have been considered relatively safe . . . and many of these commands may not be accustomed to handling frequent shootings or homicides,” Alcazar told The Post. “It’s possible that violent crime is being displaced from other borough commands that are aggressively targeting their high-crime areas.”
Detectives in specialized units such as gang, narcotics, and vice are also being reassigned to foot posts to keep crime at bay in other areas, he said.
“As a result, their role has shifted from targeted strategic prevention to reactive response,” he said.
NYPD spokesman Brad Weekes pointed out that Patrol Borough Queens North has the third lowest number of murders and shootings in the city surpassed only by Manhattan South and Staten Island.
“The NYPD will continue to deploy officers where they are needed the most to keep the area safe, protect residents and keep gun violence at record-lows across the city,” Weekes said.
City Councilman Robert Holden (D-Maspeth) blamed the surge on a dearth of police officers, with the NYPD having problems recruiting and retaining cops.
“It’s really a lack of police presence that allows people to act up and take matters into their own hands,” he said. “I haven’t seen it this bad in quite some time and I’ve been around since the bad old days.”
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