With the first three months of 2024 coming to a close, data from the Columbus Division of Police showed that the city is experiencing some of the lowest levels of violence in a decade.
There have been 17 homicides reported in Columbus in 2024 as of Thursday afternoon, representing a significant decrease from the same point in prior years. The level of deadly violence in the city is at its lowest point since 2015, which also reported 17 homicides by the end of March, according to The Dispatch’s archives.
At the end of March 2023, the city had experienced 41 homicides, according to Columbus police data. In 2021, the deadliest year in the city’s history, there were 47 people killed.
There have been 17 homicides in the city in 2024 as of Friday morning.
The data doesn’t include the Feb. 22 death of a man in a mental health crisis who was shot and killed by Columbus police and remains under investigation by the Ohio Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation.https://www.usatodaynetworkservice.com/tangstatic/html/ncod/sf-q1a2z330306dc3.min.html
The city has also seen a decline in the number of fatal domestic violence incidents. As of the end of March 2023, there had been six domestic violence-related homicides in Columbus. Thus far in 2024, there have been four, according to Columbus police data.
The number of felonious assaults has also declined from 456 in 2023 to 320 in 2024 as of March 25.
While the overall number of homicides has declined, the percentage of homicides involving guns has increased. Sixteen of the 17 homicides reported as of Friday involved guns, according to police.
At the same time, in 2023, 33 out of 41 homicides were shootings.
This year, Columbus police have also started tracking the number of felonious assaults that involved a person having a gunshot injury. In the past, any shooting where a person did not die, regardless of whether that person was injured by a gunshot or even if nobody was struck at all, was considered a non-fatal shooting.
As of March 25, Columbus police said 54 people had been shot but survived. Eight of those shootings, or 14.8%, have been solved, police said.https://www.usatodaynetworkservice.com/tangstatic/html/ncod/sf-q1a2z330306dc3.min.html
By comparison, Columbus police have solved 10 of the 17 homicides that have occurred in 2024, totaling 58.8%, as of Thursday afternoon.
Another 60 shootings were reported in 2024 with no injuries, and three shootings were related where a person was injured but not by the gunshot, according to the police data.
Other cities, including Chicago, Philadelphia and Cleveland are also seeing declines in shootings and homicides compared to last year.
