Gun Violence Increases In City In 2014
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- In the City of Pittsburgh it was a violent year. In some neighborhoods this past summer, gun violence became an almost nightly occurrence.
Homicides spiked in Pittsburgh from an average of 52 in recent years to 71 this past year.
And while the rest of Allegheny County stayed steady at 40 -- for a total of 111 homicides in all. Most every murder happened in the poorer neighborhoods and towns.
Seven in Penn Hills, five in Wilkinsburg, and four each in McKeesport and Duquesne.
"They have in common increased rate of general poverty, increased crime, broken families, vacant houses," said Allegheny County Medical Examiner Dr. Karl Williams.
Dr. Williams says more than 80 percent of those killed were young - in their teens and 20s and were victims of black-on-black crime. It's something that has held true for the past decade.
"How many more African American people are going to kill each other behind nothing," said Wynona Hawkins, an Allegheny County resident.
In the city, arrests have been made in just 28 of the 71 homicides for a clearance rate of less than 40 percent.
Police investigators routinely run up against a stonewall when trying to speak with witnesses and incoming Police Chief Cameron McLay is aiming to improve police-community relations.
He hopes that initiatives like community police officers walking a beat will eventually lead to a better flow of information and more arrests.
Police here in Pittsburgh and throughout Allegheny County are hopeful that this uptick in homicides will not continue, but bringing the murder rate down in 2015 will take a community-wide effort.
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