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New year, fresh blood spilled in Kingsbridge

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Following a year that saw slayings spike in the otherwise relatively serene 50th Precinct, not a month has gone by this year and already Kingsbridge has notched its first homicide.

Officers found a 39-year-old man with stab wounds to the torso inside an apartment building at 3034 Kingsbridge Ave., Tuesday, just before noon. He was rushed to Saint Barnabas Hospital on Third Avenue, but doctors weren’t able to save him.

The man’s identity was not released at presstime, pending notification of his family.

The stabbing death comes on the heels of a year where murders more than doubled in the 50th Precinct, according to New York Police Department statistics through Dec. 30. They jumped from three in 2017 to seven last year.

It was statistics like that which prompted Councilman Andrew Cohen to demand more officers assigned to the 5-0 — something precinct commander told The Riverdale Press at the time he’d welcome.

Still, Capt. Emilio Melendez cautioned about reading too much into the numbers.

“We’re talking about historically low numbers, compared to what it used to look like,” Melendez told The Press earlier this month.

There are no arrests in the Jan. 29 homicide, and police are investigating.

50th Precinct, New York Police Department,