By Nathan Duke
Crime dropped 9.5 percent in Bayside’s 111th Precinct in 2009, but the number of rapes increased and there was one murder in the community, the precinct’s year-end crime statistics show.
In 2008, the precinct had no murders and one rape, but crime statistics for the 111th this year showed that there was one homicide and four rapes in the northeast Queens communities covered by the precinct. The community had one murder in 2007 and none between 2004 and 2006.
The precinct covers Little Neck, Bayside, Auburndale, Hollis Hills, Oakland Gardens and part of Fresh Meadows.
The year’s sole murder occurred Feb. 22 in the exclusive Baybridge Condominiums in Bayside. Yoon Kim, a 64-year-old Korean man, was discovered hanging in the second-floor stairwell of his home on Michael Court, police said. His wife, Nyung Kim, 57, had been stabbed to death in the second-floor hallway of the home near the bedroom.
Police sources said they believed Yoon Kim had fixed himself something to eat prior to the murder-suicide.
The last homicide in the precinct was in December 2007, when police found a 35-year-old Little Neck man beaten and stabbed to death in Admiral Park near the intersection of the Little Neck Parkway and 42nd Avenue on the morning after Christmas Day.
In 2009, the number of rapes increased to four incidents from one incident in 2008 but were lower than the eight incidents recorded in 2007.
Grand larceny auto also increased this year, rising from 162 incidents in 2008 to 169 incidents in 2009.
But the number of robberies, felony assaults, burglaries and grand larceny incidents dropped.
The 111th reported 94 robberies in 2008, but only 86 incidents in 2009, while the number of felony assaults fell from 43 incidents in 2008 to 37 incidents in 2009.
Burglaries also decreased, dropping from 282 incidents in 2008 to 237 incidents in 2009. The number of grand larceny incidents fell from 439 thefts in 2008 to 390 thefts in 2009.
Overall crime in the precinct went down 9.5 percent last year after being up 1.1 percent in the communities it covers the previous year.
The precinct reported that crime rates were down 27.7 percent during the final week of the year from the year-earlier numbers.
Reach reporter Nathan Duke by e-mail at nduke@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.
