North Brooklyn’s murder toll is steadily ticking upward, with a shooting in Bedford-Stuyvesant early yesterday morning leaving a 33-year-old man dead and a 25-year-old man wounded. In a separate incident yesterday afternoon, a man was shot in the leg near Kingston Avenue and Fulton Street, also in Bedford-Stuyvesant, police said.

As of last week, the homicide rate had risen 13% in the 10 precincts that make up North Brooklyn; the city as a whole is in a downward trend.

In the northern half of Brooklyn there have been 78 murders this year, compared with 69 during the same period last year. The number of shooting victims in the area was also up by about 13%, while murder arrests were down 10% from the same period last year. In Bedford-Stuyvesant, murders were up 10%.

The rest of the city has seen its homicide rate drop by 15% this year compared with the first half of 2006.

Police said the two men in the first incident were shot outside 505 Franklin Ave. at about 1:30 a. m. The 33-year-old victim, who was not identified, was shot multiple times in the torso, and died at Kings County Hospital, according to police.