Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro says a slight decrease in the city's homicide toll in 2012 is nothing "to brag about."

Preliminary figures indicate that 193 persons were murdered in New Orleans in 2012, 6 fewer than in 2011.

"Look, that's not really anything to brag about.  We're almost still at 200 again this year as we were last year.  We're still well above where we should be, where anyone wants us to be."

Appearing on the Denny Schaffer Show Thursday morning, Canizzaro also expressed alarm with the number of shootings in New Orleans.

"We're talking about well over 500 shootings in the city of New Orleans," he said.

"Some of those cases aren't even reported.  The police are called out because they are shots fired but there might not be a victim and there might not be a witness who wants to get involved."

"That, to me, is probably as frightening as the actual murder total. If many of these shooters were more accurate with their aim, Lord knows how many homicides we would have," the D.A. told Schaffer.