DC murder rate at a 16-year high

D.C.’s murder rate is at a 16-year high as the city recorded its 199th homicide of the year on Monday, DCist reported. 

This year’s murder count is already 13 percent higher than the same time last year, according to Metropolitan Police Department data.

D.C. saw 166 homicides in 2019 and 198 in 2020. 

Asked about the city’s rising homicide rate, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said she is concerned about the recent rise in murders and is “throwing every resource available at it.”

“We have days upon days upon days left [in the year],” Bowser said at a press conference on Tuesday.

“We’re obviously very concerned about the increased number of people who lost their lives senselessly. We’re literally throwing every resource we have available at it,” she said.

The mayor added that the city has put in place “violence-interrupter initiatives” as well increased police presence in neighborhoods with an “acute uptick” of violence. 

The Mayor’s office did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.

The DCist report noted that the majority of the homicides in D.C. occurred east of the Anacostia River and most of the victims have been Black.

Data from the city indicates that 115 homicides through mid-November took place in Wards 7 and 8. 

The recent rise in murders in DC comes as murder rates spiral upwards across the country, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report was published in September, showing that homicides increased nearly 30 percent nationwide from 2019 to 2020.

That first time in four years that the estimated number of violent crimes in the U.S. increased from the previous year, the FBI said in a statement.