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Man shot in Whitcomb
08/05/2012 1:04 PM by John M
An unidentified man is in critical condition being shot just before 1AM today in the 1900 block of Whitcomb Street.
There have been only 2 homicides so far this year in East End, of 20 for the city as a whole. Richmond is on pace for our 2nd least deadly year since 1964 (bested only by 2008).
Richmond is just having its worst shooter and stabber year. I’ve always said if people were better shots there would be so many more homicides instead of attempted murder. So much violence and the homicide numbers don’t reflect what’s really going on.
Should we consider improvments in prehospital care as well as hospital care. I wounder how the numbers compare from years ago of instances of people shot compared to fatalties.
Using the RPD’s Crime Incident Information Center, I’ve compared the number of “Assaults” for Jan.1-Jul.31 for Sectors 111 and 113 for the last 12 years, as well as the homicide count for that entire year for both combined. “Assault” is a fairly broad charge; “Aggravated Assault” would probably be a better statistic, but the RPD site does not break that out.
Sector 111 is the area south of Nine Mile and Carrington, and includes Union Hill, Church Hill North, Chimborazo, St.John’s, and Fulton. Sector 113 is the area north of Nine Mile and Carrington, and includes Fairmount, Mosby, Whitcomb, Creighton, Fairfield, Brauers, and Woodville.
Before 2008, the combined sectors were averaging 730 assaults in the period up to July 31. From 2008 and after they have averaged 566. Most of that reduction has come in Sector 113. The highest count of assaults was in 2004, with 795 assaults between both sectors. This year, 2012, is the lowest with 531.
The worst 4 years in each category are highlighted in red, the best 4 years are highlighted in blue. While there is not a completely direct correlation between the numbers for assaults and homicides, there appears to be a very strong relation. It is also apparent that the level of violence has dropped quite a bit in the past 7 years.
* through July 31
John,
Always nice to see hard numbers instead of baseless speculation. Thanks for clearing this up.