St. Louis is contending with a homicide rate that by year’s end likely will be the worst in a half-century. The number of killings soared over the summer as detectives were called to 114 homicides in June, July and August. Police homicide commander Lt. Scott Aubuchon said, “We’ve never seen anything like the last three months. These are indescribable times.” The shooting death last Monday of a 15-year-old girl was the 194th homicide of the year, matching the city’s total for all of 2019, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Over the past decade, the city has averaged 50 homicides in the year’s last four months. If that holds true, St. Louis will see 240 homicides in 2020, the highest in 25 years. The highest yearly homicide total was 267 in 1993 in a city of 387,000 residents, a homicide rate per 100,000 people of 69. The population has dwindled to just over 300,000. The result is a homicide rate projected to be 79, which appears to exceed the rate for any other large U.S. city.
Cincinnati, with a similar population, Cincinnati, had a homicide rate last year of 24. Pittsburgh, also with about the same population as St. Louis, had a rate of 12. Baltimore saw a stunning 348 killings last year. With a population double that of St. Louis, the homicide rate was 58. Most St. Louis homicides are unsolved. Aubuchon said the motive in killings that have been solved are “all over the place,” including random fights that escalate and arguments over stolen money.” Criminologist Richard Rosenfeld of the University of Missouri St. Louis said the typical homicide involves two young men, usually African American, in a dispute in which one kills the other. Finding cooperative witnesses has always been a challenge and the pandemic is making it harder. “It’s tough to talk with somebody standing through a door wearing a mask,” Aubuchon said.