LOS ANGELES—In the first half of 2022 homicides in the City of Los Angeles shot upward a whopping 39 percent from 2019. That was the year before the 2020 start of the COVID-19 pandemic. That summer also saw crime increase in most cities after the national riots following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis….

LOS ANGELES—In the first half of the year, there were 181 homicides in the City of Los Angeles, the highest number in the past 15 years, according to data released Monday by a nonprofit news organization. According to Crosstown at USC, a nonprofit news organization based at the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism,…

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Ark.—Authorities in Arkansas say four people were fatally shot at two homes in a rural community, but investigators have not yet determined whether the deaths are connected. The deaths were reported Thursday at two homes about a one-quarter mile apart in rural Stone County, about 75 miles north of Little Rock, Arkansas State…

LOS ANGELES—Eleven fewer homicides were reported in Los Angeles during the first month of 2022 than during the same period in 2021, a drop of nearly 17 percent, Police Chief Michel Moore said Tuesday. The city had a nearly 12 percent year-over-year climb in homicides in 2021, bringing it to levels not seen since 2006, Moore…

Commentary Enough is enough. Crime is not usually something I think much about, but two murders in the last two months hit too close to home. Most recent was the senseless murder of 24-year-old Brianna Kupfer from my town of Pacific Palisades. Before that was the equally senseless murder of Jacqueline Avant, the mother of…

Los Angeles law enforcement reported sharp increases in murders and robberies as a bevy of crimes continues to hit the area. The county has seen a 94 percent increase in homicides in 2021, compared to 2019, according to Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva. The pandemic-related crime increases are not unique to LA County, but the…

LOS ANGELES—Los Angeles saw spikes in select categories of crime in 2021, most notably a nearly 12 percent year-over-year climb in homicides. Mayor Eric Garcetti noted that the pace of homicides was stemmed in the second half of the year. “To put that in context, I remember the first half of this past year, when…

PHILADELPHIA—A 14-year-old Philadelphia boy waiting for a bus to take him home from school was shot 18 times and killed Monday afternoon, police said. Samir Jefferson was waiting at a bus stop shortly before 3:30 p.m. Monday in a North Philadelphia neighborhood when two unknown shooters fired at least 36 shots, a Philadelphia police spokesperson…

Commentary Sad to say, we keep killing each other. New FBI statistics show that, even though we practiced widespread isolation during the pandemic, the nation’s murder rate grew last year at the fastest rate ever—up 29.4 percent. There are fewer homicides now than during the peak years of the early ’90s, but not since the…

LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Overall crime in the city of Los Angeles dipped slightly in the first half of the year, but the number of killings soared to its highest level in more than a decade, according to a report released July 16. Data compiled by Crosstown, a nonprofit news organization based at the University of Southern…