NEW YORK, NY —Despite New York City's consistent decline in homicides, young men of color continue to be the most likely victims. As WNYC's Robert Hennelly reports this weekend was no exception.

It read like an Iraqi combat report. Just over a 48-hour period gunfire in separate city incidents killed four young black males and one young female Hispanic ranging in ages from 19 to 29. It left four wounded, three from one fatal incident that played out on the 5 train when two groups of teens clashed.

Earlier this month 14 year old and 15 year old African American boys were both wounded by gun fire. For the first half of 2OO7 ready 63 young men between ages 18 to 24 have been gunned down mostly with illegal handguns. According to a just released Department of Justice report New York City is not alone.

According to the just released DOJ report the number of black male murder victims is on the rise with over half of them young black males ages 17 to 29. Nationwide in 2OO5 over 8,OOO African Americans were murdered with 93 percent of those homicides being committed by other blacks.