The fatal stabbing of a man in a south Minneapolis apartment building over the weekend marked the city's 41st homicide of the waning year and the third in two weeks.

The victim, who has not been identified, was found stabbed late Saturday afternoon in the building in the 5700 block of 33rd Avenue S. and taken to Hennepin County Medical Center, where he died, said police spokesman Sgt. Steve McCarty.

There was no sign of a break-in, and the killer and the victim seemed to know one another, he said. No suspects are in custody, but the public is not thought to be in danger.

Two other Minneapolis residents died last week as the result of homicidal violence.

On Thursday, Lolitta Malone, 43, was found dead of stab wounds in a duplex in the 2300 block of Queen Avenue N. No one has been arrested in her death.

Her housemate, Henry Love, called police after finding her lying dead in a pool of blood. "She was a nice person," Love said. He said Malone had moved to Minneapolis a few years ago from Indiana.

On Dec. 23, a 30-year-old Minneapolis man died at Hennepin County Medical Center after being shot in the head three days before, police said. His name has not been released.

About 1:30 a.m. on Dec. 20, officers were called to the area of Lake Street and Pillsbury Avenue S. on a report of shots fired. A vehicle had left the scene right after the gunfire, said police spokesman Sgt. Bill Palmer.

Within a few minutes, two gunshot victims arrived in a car at Hennepin County Medical Center. One was the man who later died; the other was a 31-year-old man shot in the hand.

Preliminary 2012 crime statistics from the city of Minneapolis as of Dec. 17 show that reports of homicides, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults and other violent crimes grew 7.6 percent compared to 2011, when the incidence of gravest-category crime hit the lowest levels in nearly three decades. Minneapolis had 32 homicides in 2011.