Your murder-free workplace

An unusually long run of days without a murder in New York City ended on Saturday tantalizingly shy of two weeks. According to the press, the New York Police Department believes this 12-day stretch was the longest without a homicide since the early ’90s, though last February saw a comparably long streak of 10 days. Ten whole days.

The last homicide occurred at 11:16 pm, Sunday, February 1st, when five people were shot by two gunmen near the intersection of W. 136th St. and Broadway in Harlem. That shooting left Shadale Graham, 28, of Harlem, dead on the street with a bullet wound to his head. Two men and two women in their 20s were also wounded.

But Eric Roman was shot outside of his home in Queens on Friday and died of his wounds in a hospital on Saturday, the New York Times reports, thus ending the 12-day run. The same day, another Queens man was found dead in his basement with head trauma, though that case has not yet been ruled a homicide.

Officials believe cold weather is the primary cause for these extended periods of quiet, and the shooting rate isn’t down year over year — 136 people have been shot in New York as of Saturday February 14th this year, compared to 110 in the same period last year.

But while shootings are up, the murder rate is on the decline: homicides are down 2.5% year-to-date as of February 8th, and 82.4% since 1993.