Through the first 6 months of 2013, there were 14 killings in the city of Richmond. On July 2, Jett Higham in Jackson Ward became the 15th.
The lowest number of killings in recent history was 32 in 2008. Over the past 5 years, the city has averaged almost 39 homicides per year. The last year Richmond saw fewer than 32 murders was 1961.
The East End has had 5 killings in 2013. There were 9 in the area in all of 2012, 13 in 2011, and 14 in 2010.
This post was corrected 7/9 to adjust the number of homicides from 16 to 15.
8 comments
Ryan Baldwin liked this on Facebook.
“@chpn: Richmond’s homicide count on pace for historic low http://t.co/f03dLzzSeU”
Melanie Barron liked this on Facebook.
Actually, Higham’s murder is the 15th homicide this year as one of the earlier deaths was recently ruled justifiable.
Anyone know the circumstances behind the justifiable death?
I don’t, except that it was this one from Southside: http://southsidecrimerva.tumblr.com/post/52056528383/manchester-homicide
While this is good news it is hard to imagine this rate going much lower or even staying this low. Maybe the cycle of violence has truly been broken, but the same conditions which foster violent crime (poverty, drugs, unemployment, broken family structure) have not gone away. With roughly 1/5th the metro population, Richmond still has 3 times the murders of the rest of the area combined this year. I hope the murder rate (and all violent crime) remains low, but even on murder in your neighborhood is one too many. The numbers below come from the times dispatch online data center.
Chesterfield 4
Hanover 0
Henrico 1
Petersburg 0
Hopewell 0
Colonial Heights 0
Richmond Murder Rate at Historic Low
http://www.wric.com/story/22972632/richmond-murder-rate-at-historic-low