RECENT COMMENTS

Murder 2012

Forty-two people were murdered in Richmond in 2012, the highest count in 5 years. There were only 9 homicides in the East End, though – an improvement on the 13 recorded in 2011 and a total matched in recent decades only by the 9 in 2009 (and a far cry from the 27 as recently as 2004 and 41 in 1993).

Of the 9 killings in the East End in 2012, over half came in a 4 week stretch from mid-September through early October. With 11 homicides, September was Richmond’s deadliest since 2005 (a year which saw 86 killings in the city and 26 in the East End).

Arrests have been made in 6 of the 9 killings in the East End, a 66% clearance rate.

There were 4 killings in Sector 111 (Church Hill, Chimborazo, Church Hill North, Fulton, Oakwood, and Union Hill) in 2012, 5 in Sector 113 (north of Carrington and Nine Mile). All 5 of the killings in Sector 113 occurred in or directly adjacent to public housing.

East End Homicides in 2012

Between 1982 to 2006, Richmond saw at least 63 killings (and often many more) (PDF). The number started rising in the mid-1980s and jumped to 100 in 1988. The yearly toll stayed over 100 for 10 straight years, hitting 161 in 1994 and 140 in 1997. The count dipped back into the 70s, jumped towards 100 in 2004, and has fallen dramatically since. The historic low of 32 was achieved in 2008, with 2009 close behind with 39.

On the way to a devastating body count of 161, 1994 saw 2 months with over 20 killings, and only one month in the single digits. The violence peaked in August 1994 when 25 killings left someone dead almost every day of that month. There were more people killed in July and August of 1994 than in all of 2011. There were an equal number of murders that April alone to the total of the first 8 months of 2011. There were more murders that year than in the last 4 years combined.