After only seven murders during the first 10-and-a-half months of the year, the 52nd Precinct experienced three in one week in November, all of them within a four-block radius in North Fordham.

Over the past 28 days, there were eight murders in the entire borough and three of them occurred in this neighborhood. The three appear to be unrelated, but the area has struggled for decades with blatant drug dealing and violence.

After finding a 40-year-old Hispanic man with a long history of arrests shot to death near 198th Street and Pond Place on Nov. 17, police said the murder may have been drug related. Police officials said no arrests have been made and that the investigation is ongoing.

Five days later on Nov. 22, a couple of blocks away at 2780 Grand Concourse, a 24-year-old Hispanic man was shot in the groin and later bled to death from the injuries. Two women, ages 22 and 24, were later arrested and charged with the killing.

The very next day, a 44-year-old black man was found beaten to death in his apartment on Marion Avenue, just blocks from the previous two murders.

An Impact Zone (which puts rookie cops on foot patrols in high crime neighborhoods) was recently moved from here to another part of the precinct. Also, due to lower crime stats in the early part of the year, the precinct lost dozens of cops to other commands and is down at least 50 officers from where it was a year ago.  So far, there have been 10 murders in 2008, compared to 12 by this point a year ago.

Police at the 52nd Precinct could not be reached by press time.