More murders have occurred on the East End of Long Island in 2010 than they have in almost 20 years, according to new statistics out. Even more troubling is that fewer than half of them have been solved.
Only 22, or 44 percent, of the 50 murder cases have been solved — the lowest percentage seen in Long Island in recent history.
What’s causing the spike? Gang violence, with increased activity from crew members of the Crips, Bloods and M-13s, and the four deaths of prostitutes whose remains were found on Gilgo Beach last year all caused the murder rate to climb.
“We have a number of cases that are in an active stage of investigation,” Detective Lt. Gerard Pelkofsky told Metro. “Cases take time to play out; we have to get evidence back. Last year we cleared nine homicides from prior years. I am confident that in 2011 we will solve a lot of these cases.”
