Shootings in the city hit a record low this year — even with a rash of gun violence that plagued the Big Apple this summer.
As of yesterday, there were 1,353 shootings citywide, a 5 percent drop from 1,420 incidents in 2009 — and the lowest since officials began tracking the data 18 years ago.
The number of shootings has dropped 8.5 percent from last year and 14.5 percent since 2001.
“The fact that the safest big city in America is safer than ever is a testament to the hard work and determination of the men and women who put their lives on the line for us every day — and it also reflects our commitment to doing everything possible to stop gun violence,” Mayor Bloomberg said.
Gotham is also ending this year with the lowest number of murders in the last 50 years — clocking 414 and beating the previous record of 471 homicides in 2009.
Officials are crediting the good news on police initiatives such as Operation Impact — in which mobile units are dispatched to neighborhoods with spikes in crime — and the NYPD’s controversial stop-and-frisk policies, which have been criticized for mostly targeting minorities.
“We’re preventing crimes before someone is killed and before someone else has to go to prison for murder or other serious crimes,” said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, whose department seizes 8,000 weapons annually — about 10 percent of them illegal handguns.
“We’re also forging new alliances with advocates for public safety in every corner of the city.”
The low numbers come despite a gruesome summer of blood that included several shooting deaths citywide — from toddlers to mothers, innocent bystanders killed by stray bullets to thugs in gang fights.
Brooklyn teen Akeal Christopher was shot in the head in June and died of his injuries a month later — on his 15th birthday on July 10.
Bronx tot Lloyd Morgan, 4, was shot and killed by a stray bullet at a playground on July 22.
And 28-year-old mother Fatima Gordon of Flatbush was killed Aug. 30 when a gunman opened fire on a Brooklyn street — also wounding three other bystanders, one a 13-year-old boy.