There were six murders in the city in the first two days of the new year, four of which occurred on New Year’s Day, Police Department statistics show.

The homicides of 2006 come on the heels of a record-low year of violence. The number of homicides dropped to 540 in 2005, the lowest figure since 1963, the first year the Police Department started formally tracking crime, when there were 549, police said. There were also six homicides on the first two days of 2005, police said.

While homicide reports were at a low in 2005, the number of shooting incidents rose to 1,534 from 1,480 in 2004, police data indicate. The number of shooting victims also increased, to 1,838 in 2005 from 1,777 in 2004.

One shooting victim from the last day of 2005 was on life support as of yesterday evening, police said. At 9:47 p.m. on Saturday, the 27-year-old man was shot in the head in front of 332 Gates Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant, police said. His .22-caliber rifle was allegedly found at the scene.

The most recent murder was yesterday around 9 p.m., when a man, 54, allegedly slashed his mother numerous times in the neck and upper chest inside her East 56th Street apartment. The woman, Bernice Keller, 85, was alleged to have lived alone, but her son, Richard, who hailed from upstate was living in her apartment for the last couple weeks, police sources said. Police found her on her side in a second bedroom in her apartment, and a knife was recovered on the floor. Richard Keller, who claimed he had voices speaking to him inside his head, was expected to be arrested today, police sources said.

The first murder victim of 2006 was a 17-year-old boy in Woodside, police said. On Sunday at 1:38 a.m., Carlos Cintron and a group of friends were reportedly on their way to a party when a fight broke out in front of 74-22 64th Place. Cintron attempted to break up the brawl and was stabbed in the process, police said. After witnesses allegedly identified a suspect, police arrested John Montanez, 20, at 1 a.m. yesterday on charges of second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon. Mr. Montanez had previously been arrested two times for possession of weapons.

Also in Queens just about an hour later, two men were killed in Astoria, police said. Joseph Williams, 33, of Hempstead, was shot in the chest and Kendall Scott, 37, of Astoria, was shot in the groin. They were both taken to Western Queens Community Hospital, where they later died.

At around the same time, Roland Gibson, 34, was shot in the neck during a dispute over money at a party at 124th Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem, police said. Gibson was found with a gunshot wound and was transported to Harlem Hospital, where he died. Police arrested Marlin Soberanis, 40, of West 123rd Street, and charged him with the murder after detectives from a Brooklyn precinct identified him as a suspect. The Brooklyn detectives were investigating the case of a man – who later turned out to be Mr. Soberanis – suffering from a gunshot wound, police said. Police also arrested Kevin Parks, 27, of West 137th Street, on a charge of criminal possession of a weapon after witnesses reported that Mr. Parks picked up Gibson’s gun and fled with it.

Yesterday at 12:49 a.m., Lovell Moody, 27, of Bergen Street, was riding in the front passenger seat on his way to a store, police said. The vehicle reached the corner of Graham Avenue and Maujer Street in Williamsburg when Moody was shot one time in the head, police said. The motor vehicle operator drove to Manhattan Avenue and Meserole Street, where he called 911. Emergency Medical Service responded and took the victim to Bellevue Hospital, Fire Department officials said, where Moody was pronounced dead.