Man, Wounded in 1960, Counts As 2009 Murder Victim

The NY Times looks at the death of William Jenkins, whose infections from a 1960 shooting have prompted the ME's office to classify his March 13, 2009 death as a homicide. Jenkins was paralyzed at 18 when he was shot by rival gang members: "He was with Dragons who faced off against some Viceroys on 103rd Street, between Park and Madison Avenues." Jenkins' death is now the "oldest reclassified homicide in New York Police Department history," and will be counted toward 2009's homicide total. Which apparently perplexes and annoys Police Commissioner Ray Kelly (who, naturally, wanted the lowest possible homicide tally). He told the Times, “If someone is shot on New Year’s Eve and dies the next day, it makes sense to record it as a homicide in the new year... When shootings and deaths are separated by decades, and now by almost a half century, it’s counterintuitive that they are consistently declared homicides.”