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The Cities Blog
Brandt Williams

Shootings up, homicides down so far this year in Mpls.

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I nearly spit my coffee out while perusing the city of Minneapolis' weekly crime stats this morning.  For some reason, the number of shootings reported in north Minneapolis had jumped from 74 two weeks ago to 961 last week -- an increase of more than 1,700 percent.

Needless to say, that was an error that was quickly fixed.

However, the number of shootings reported in north Minneapolis is nearly 50 percent higher than at this time in 2013.  And according to the corrected spreadsheet, officers have recovered 253 guns from crime scenes, in traffic stops and from other incidents so far this year -- more than a third more guns recovered compared to the same period in 2013.

Shootings are up, but homicides are down citywide. So far, 14 homicides have been tallied in 2014, compared to 16 in the first six months of 2013. The 14 killed includes a victim wounded in 2013 who died this year and was tallied as a 2014 homicide.

Other homicide-related stats:

  • All 14 homicides involved firearms (in past years at the six-month mark, between 65 and 75 percent of homicides involved firearms)

  • 13 of 14 victims are people of color (12 black, one Native American)

  • 13 of 14 victims are male

Murders in Minnesota went up between 2012 and 2013. According to the 2013 Uniform Crime Report released today by the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, 111 murders were committed in the state last year -- a 21 percent increase over 2012.

There were 134 victims of homicide -- a manner of death that means "killed by a person" -- during 2013.  Thirteen of those killings were ruled to be committed out of negligence and 10 homicides were determined to be justified. That leaves the rest to be classified as criminal acts.

According to the report, firearms were the tools most often used (53 percent) to commit murder. Knives or other sharp objects were used in 19 of the 111 murders; hands, feet and fists were used in 11 killings.

Non-violent crimes, such as burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft, all decreased between 2012 and 2013.