Crown Heights, Brooklyn - Four Murders In 4 Weeks All Of Them On President Street

Crown Heights, Brooklyn, NY - During a deadly four-week stretch, four men were slain on a 10-block stretch on President St. in Crown Heights - spreading fear in a neighborhood already plagued by a substantial rise in homicides.

The stretch falls within the NYPD's 71st Precinct, where the number of murders more than doubled last year compared with 2004.
"We don't see any connections among the cases," said Police Department Deputy Inspector Frank Vega, commanding officer of the 71st Precinct, as he tried to allay residents' fears.

In the wake of the last year's spike in murders, a dozen cops were added to the precinct in January. But police said they still need help from the residents of President St.
"We need more eyes on the street," Vega said, noting that "no active neighborhood watch group" operates on the block where the most recent killings happened.

Eight people have been killed in the 71st Precinct this year, up from five during the same period in 2005, and it's the killings that have people talking.