It was a bloody New Year for 12 people wounded – three of them fatally – in the first hours of 2001, police said.
The worst incident came shortly after 1 a.m., when two men were stabbed on the street in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn.
Andre Perez, a 17-year-old John Jay HS senior, left a party to get beer and was in front of 3064 Brighton Seventh St. when he was confronted by Juan Mora, 26, investigators said.
The two men got into a fight – possibly over the beer – that left Perez fatally stabbed in the chest, stomach, face and legs.
Perez lived with his large Mexican immigrant family, who came to the U.S. nine years ago.
“Andre was a good boy,” said his father, Miguel Perez.
He said his son still carried a bullet inside his liver from being shot while out celebrating the Mexican holiday of Cinco de Mayo earlier this year.
Mora, also stabbed, was in critical condition at Lutheran Hospital.
Police believe the men slashed each another, but cops are looking for other suspects.
“We want to find out who did this,” said Perez’s grief-stricken older sister, Denia.
Both men were described as gang members, but it was not described as a gang-related fight. No one was immediately charged.
In a second incident, Shari Scurry, 23, died at 1:50 a.m. at 16 Marcy Pl., in the South Bronx after being shot in the head.
Scurry, a cashier at a Pathmark in Yonkers who was eight-months pregnant, was celebrating the holiday at the home of her boyfriend’s cousin, a witness said.
A neighbor who was there told Marjorie Merrick, Scurry’s aunt, that Scurry, her boyfriend and the cousin went into the apartment bathroom minutes before a shot rang out.
Early today cops arrested the boyfriend, Jeffrey Freeman, 29, and charged him with murder.
Also yesterday, Luc St. Hubert, 27, was found slumped over the steering wheel of his white minivan at 4:45 a.m. in front of 1485 Sterling Pl. in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
Police said Hubert, of 145 E. 46th St., was shot in the right side of the head and in the forearm. There was no immediate explanation for the slaying.
In seven other incidents early yesterday, eight people were shot in Manhattan and Brooklyn, none seriously wounded.
Police said one shooting occurred a minute after midnight when cops responded to reports of gunfire at 780 St. Mark’s Pl. in Crown Heights. They found two armed men, who began to flee the scene.
Police caught up with one, Frasier Lavel, who had a cast on his leg. Lavel, 17, pointed a gun at cops, who fired and hit him in the shoulder, authorities said.
Hours earlier, the city ended 2000 with an increase in homicides of 0.5 percent over 1999, Mayor Giuliani said.
He said overall crime will be down 6 percent in 2000 – and the homicide rate had been expected to be much higher.