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The serenity of a residential street in southeast Queens was shattered before dawn on Friday when police officers exchanged fire with a man they said had shot a gang rival less than a mile away a half-hour earlier.

The police said none of the 10 bullets fired during the firefight, which left the gunman dead, struck the homes of sleeping neighbors on 156th Street, a wide street lined with frame houses , some with picket fences.

The sound of gunshots is becoming all too common in the 113th Precinct, an area that includes Southeast Jamaica, St. Albans, Hollis and Springfield Gardens.

Shootings there have increased 40 percent this year compared to the same period a year ago, to 14 from 10 . And while murders have continued to plummet citywide, they have doubled in that precinct, to six from three.