Washington, D.C. has seen a rise in its homicide rate this year compared to 2018, crime data from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) indicated.
As of December 24, 2019, a total of 163 homicides have taken place so far in 2019, which means there is a three percent increase from 2018, when the figure was 158 at this point and reached 160 in total by the end of the year.
Almost half of the homicides that occurred in the city this year remained unsolved and nearly half of the victims were younger than 26.
The year of 2015 follows 2019 in having the most murders, with 162 individuals killed, over the past decade.
The District also saw a massive spike in 2018 — by 38 percent — from the previous year, where homicides jumped from 116 to 160.
There were 479 homicides recorded in D.C. in 1991. The figure gradually fell in the next 20 years, reaching down to 88 in 2012. However, it started going up after that, with 104 murders in 2013 and 105 in 2014.
Washington City Paper interviewed family members and friends of some of this year’s homicide victims.
Among the people killed in 2019 were 20-year-old Zyair Bradley and 23-year-old Alexis Washington who were shot on the unit block of Forrester Street SW on January 13, 22-year-old Davane Williams shot on the 1200 block of North Capitol Street NW on January 15, 21-year-old Desimon Richardson shot on the 4900 block of Nash Street NE on April 4, 11-year-old Karon Brown, shot on the 2700 block of Naylor Road SE on July 18, 32-year-old Dominic Robinson shot on the 900 Block of Division Avenue NE on July 9 and others.