
    The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v Arnold Lynn, Appellant.
    [638 NYS2d 431]
   —Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (John Collins, J.), rendered April 11,1994, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to concurrent terms of 3x/2 to 7 years, unanimously affirmed.

Defendant’s claim that the trial court failed to require the prosecutor to provide racially-neutral explanations for his peremptory challenges of three "black citizenfs]” is unpreserved for appellate review as a matter of law, since other than merely noting the race of the jurors, defense counsel never requested any relief (see, People v Smith, 81 NY2d 875; People v Green, 181 AD2d 693, 694, lv denied 79 NY2d 1049). We decline to review the claim in the interest of justice. Were we to review it, we would find the claim to be without merit since the mere existence of a number of strikes against members of a cognizable group is insufficient, without more, to raise an inference of a pattern of discrimination sufficient to establish a prima facie case (see, People v Jenkins, 84 NY2d 1001; People v Childress, 81 NY2d 263). Concur — Sullivan, J. P., Milonas, Ellerin, Rubin and Kupferman, JJ.  