By Peter Sorkin
Amed Hasan, 18, was the 669th murder victim of 2000, exceeding 1999's total of 667, police said. No address was given for Hasan.
A man in Chelsea in Manhattan was found stabbed to death early Saturday morning and accounted for the 668th homicide, police said.
Hasan's shooting stemmed from an incident with several other men inside Club Bora Bora at 23-70 Steinway St., said Detective Carolyn Chew, a Police Department spokeswoman. After the men left the club, the argument spilled out into the street where it escalated into a brawl directly across the way at a gas station at 11 p.m., Chew said.
One of the men pulled a gun, Chew said. Hasan suffered four gunshot wounds to the head and one to his right leg. Nearly five hours later, at 3:53 a.m. Sunday, Hasan was pronounced dead at Elmhurst Hospital from the gunshot wounds to the head, Chew said. Another victim, 23, whom police did not identify, was shot once in the right hip and was in stable condition at Elmhurst Hospital.
Chew said four Brooklyn men were arrested and charged in the shooting. Louis Candelaria, 32, of 248 Lincoln Ave. was charged with murder in the second degree as was Benny Sanchez, 32, of 284 Nichols St., she said.
Sanchez was also charged with criminal possession of a weapon, according to the detective. Kelvin Garcia, 27, of 3414 Fulton St. and Ramy Hasan, 21, were charged with criminal possession of a weapon, she said. Hasan was also charged with one count of reckless endangerment, according to Chew.
In 1998, the number of homicides totaled 629. With this most recent killing, 2000 became the second year in a row that homicides have increased after eight consecutive years of declining, according to figures released from the Police Department.
Although homicides are on the rise, the total number of slayings this year are far fewer than the high of 2,445 homicides in the early 1990s.
