- City’s anti-violence efforts to increase emphasis on intervention
- Akron’s 26 murders last year about half of 2020 record
- Homicides last year lowest since 2016, when there were 32
Things are trending in a positive direction when it comes to homicides in Akron.
The number of homicides in the city last year dropped to its lowest level in six years, and the number of murders were just half of the record high of 50 in 2020.
What’s more, the rate of Black people and people under 30 dying from firearms dipped significantly. However, firearms still made up the vast majority of homicides in both the city and county.
Akron last year saw a total of 34 homicides, the lowest number since 2016, when there were 32.
Homicides are defined as the killing of one person by another and include deaths such as murders, killings done in self-defense and accidental shootings, among other causes.
Akron police report 26 of last year’s homicides were murders, or the unlawful, unjustified killing of another person.
The eight homicides not counted as murders in 2023 include two infants and a 6-year-old who died of fentanyl poisoning, a woman who was accidentally shot, and four men whose deaths were ruled to have involved self defense, according to Akron police.