Murder by the Numbers
Now that 2015 is done, here’s how things looked regarding the city’s murder rate for 2015.*
Here’s what the stats looked like so far based on the latest figures provided by the Department of Public Safety from January 1 – December 27.
Of the 142 murder victims, local adult criminal histories were found for 114 (80%) of the victims. These 114 people accounted for 459 adult felony arrests.
Where criminal histories were found:
- 43 (38%) had a previous weapons arrest
- 63 (55%) had a previous drug arrest
- 69 (61%) had a previous crimes against persons arrest.
Of the 102 suspects where a name was known, prior local adult criminal histories were found for 84 (82%) of the suspects. These 102 people accounted for 331 adult felony arrests:
- 42 (50%) had a previous weapons arrest
- 49 (58%) had a previous drug arrest
- 62 (74%) had a previous crimes against persons arrest
There have been 11 juvenile victims. We’ve also had 14 suspects under the age of 18.
The racial relationship between victims and their suspects was as follows…
- Black victim – Black assailant = 56
- Black victim – White assailant = 4
- Black victim – Hispanic assailant = 0
- Black victim – Unknown assailant = 53
- White victim – White assailant = 19
- White victim – Black assailant = 18
- White victim – Hispanic assailant = 0
- White victim – Unknown assailant = 4
- Hispanic victim – Hispanic assailant = 1
- Hispanic victim – Black assailant = 3
- Hispanic victim – White assailant = 0
- Hispanic victim – Unknown assailant = 4
- Asian victim – Asian assailant = 0
- Asian victim – Black assailant = 0
- Unknown victim – Unknown assailant = 0
Forty-one (29%) of the 142 murders were known to have been motivated by drugs.
Forty (28%) of the victims of known drug-related murders died as the result of gunshot wounds.
More than 80% of the city’s murders occurred in IMPD’s North, Northeast and Northwest Districts.
And just for the record, blacks are about 25% of Indy’s population, and have been 77% of the murder victims.
*This does not include the double homicide that took place after December 27th. My sources tell me there may be more to that than law enforcement is willing to release right now.
