DC Reaches Two Hundred Homicides
DC reaches two-hundred homicides this year, as stated by the Metropolitan Police Department. It reached that number just before October. Residents are questioning if they can even live in the capital of the nation due to the saddening murder rate.
The dreadful announcement came after police gave an update on a shooting that left a teenager deceased in Northwest DC at a news conference on Tuesday. Another shooting happened an hour after in Southeast DC. The number of homicides are going to increase since there’s three more months left. It’s got worse since the late 1990s. There’s a count of eight more killings that weren’t included in the department’s review meaning the recent total could be two hundred-nine.
Rundown
Most of the killings were target hits connecting with black residents in dangerous neighborhoods, teenagers and children. The officials are doing what they can to lessen down the homicide numbers. The last time DC recorded its two hundredth homicide was on August 12, 1997.
That year totaled three hundred three killings. After, the recorded killings of DC decreased, remaining below two hundred from 2004 to 2020. The lowest number of homicides between that period was eighty-eight in 2012.
Rough Times Experienced
The state is experiencing its hardest times this year. DC’s district government plans to lay out money on rental assistance programs. There’s going to be programs for young people and their mental issues and abuse.
Violence in Washington skyrocketed during the summer with July and August having the most fatal weeks. The first five days of July totaled to ten people being murdered and the first six days of August totaled to sixteen lives being lost.
Effort to fight back
Due to that, a meeting with DC’s police chief and command staff happened. They strategized ways to fight the city’s crime. The brutality slowed down the past thirty days but most of the deaths are unsolved.
Forty-four percent of homicide cases were shut, most of them by police arrests in the middle of September. The rest were closed with no arrests made or prime suspects being dead or locked else where. That percentage was the lowest in sixteen years.
Who’s causing it?
The state has went through violence and shootings from sets in the neighborhood made up by young adults and teenagers. Most of the homicides this year were influenced by relationship disagreements.
A sixteen year old girl brutally stabbed another girl of the same age outside of a fast food restaurant. DC is going through a fast pace of killings while the pace of other states slowed down. Many fear it’s going to get worse before the year is over with.
By Kam’ron Stinson
FOX 5: Over 200 homicides: DC’s tragic milestone announced after teen, man killed in separate shootings
The Washington Post: D.C. surpasses 200 homicides for the year at earliest point since 1997
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