SAN JOSE — An 18-year-old man was shot to death in a suspected gang-related shooting at a West San Jose gas station late Sunday, bringing the city’s killings to the highest point in a quarter-century, authorities said.

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The shooting was the city’s 46th homicide of the year, a level last reached in 2012 and the highest total since 53 were recorded in 1991.

San Jose police Sgt. Enrique Garcia said Sunday’s shooting was the eighth killing of the year with suspected gang motives. But the steep overall rise from 2015 — which saw 30 homicides, a five-year low — does not have a clear explanation.

Eight homicides have involved homeless victims. Two killings have been formally attributed to domestic violence, but several more involved family ties. None appear to be completely random.

“There’s no one specific answer for why this year is higher than last year,” Garcia said.

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Mayor Sam Liccardo said every killing in the city is “one homicide too many” and echoed the idea that root causes are multi-faceted.

“Each type of violence has its own cause and requires a different response,” Liccardo said, offering examples like boosting the city’s anti-gang programs and increasing the number of battered women’s shelters.

In the most recent case, officers were alerted around 11:51 p.m. Sunday for reports of a shooting, police said. An 18-year-old man was reportedly standing in the parking lot of the Mobil gas station at Winchester Boulevard and Cadillac Drive just north of the Campbell border when someone approached him and opened fire. A car sped away soon after.

The man was hit at least once and was rushed to the hospital, where he died from his injuries. Garcia said investigators determined from witness accounts that gang affiliations, or at least claims, were heard prior to the shooting.

“We’re treating it as a gang-related homicide based on what was said or what was done during the confrontation,” Garcia said.

Police declined to reveal additional details. The victim’s identity was not formally released by authorities pending formal notification of his next of kin.

Since the start of the current decade in 2011, San Jose has averaged 40 homicides annually, which is elevated compared to the previous decade, when the city routinely was deemed the safest large city in the United States.

Garcia said that on a relative basis, San Jose still has low homicide numbers for a city with a top-10 population in the country.

“We are a city of over a million, so it’s pretty remarkable to even have a number of 46,” he said.

Still, Garcia said the department is combating the rise by turning its attention to the crimes that precipitate homicides, aggravated assaults, which have seen modest increases in the past few years. Police experts say these attacks are typically more reflective of street violence in a particular community, since homicides, even when high, affect a small portion of the population.

Garcia and Liccardo both voiced hope that a replenishing of police staffing, currently at a 30-year low, will hasten an eventual return to the kind of proactive street policing that was once a hallmark of SJPD and kept violent crime relatively low. Police academies are slowly growing, thanks in part to a November ballot measure that stabilized officer benefits and eased unrest and uncertainty within the ranks and among prospective cops.

But Liccardo noted that even the most optimistic officer projection still has to be coupled with preventative city measures.

“Getting more police is necessary but not a sufficient condition to make San Jose safer,” he said.

The mayor referenced the San Jose Works program that gives summer jobs to over 1,200 teens who live in gang-affected neighborhoods and increasing the number of Community Service Officers to ease the mid-level workload of police so they can focus on street and gang violence.

Liccardo said that while there are myriad factors within the city’s current elevated homicide count, the corresponding rise in street violence can be directly confronted by taking oxygen from the city’s street-gang culture.

“The rise in violent crime tells me that we need to be doing more work with our gang task force, working with schools, faith-based communities and nonprofits to get to young people who might be vulnerable to a gang lifestyle,” he said. “We need to get to our kids before the gangs do, and that’s where we’re going to be focusing our efforts.”

Anyone with information about the shooting can contact SJPD homicide Detective Sgt. John Barg or Detective Wayne Smith at 408-277-5283 or leave a tip with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-STOP or svcrimestoppers.org.