After Baltimore City authorities celebrated that January of 2016 didn’t have as many homicides as January of 2015, and that it was the first month since April 2015 without 27 or more homicides, a series of incidents have pushed February 2016 past February 2015 in the number of homicides. A double homicide on Saturday, February 20, pushed the number of homicides this month to 16. Then, a stabbing this morning brought it up to 17.
With a week to go in the month, the rate of homicides per day for February is now 0.81 homicides per day. It was 0.45 homicides per day in January. (Two incidents in January, one stabbing and one shooting, were ruled out as homicides and classified as suicides: one intentional and one accidental.) So it will be interesting to see how Baltimore City authorities, like the Mayor and Police Commissioner, will spin these new numbers.
We’ll give a February update on March 1. You can read our January update here.
Baltimore Homicide Analysis 