Atlanta passes 100 reported homicides in 2021
ATLANTA - Atlanta surpassed the milestone of 100 homicides in 2021 following a triple shooting after midnight on Sunday.
The Atlanta Police Department confirmed on Saturday detectives had investigated 99 homicides in 2021 prior to a fatal shooting in Vine City, which brought the total to 100. The total for the year reached 103 when three men were found shot outside a nightclub on Whitehall Street after midnight on Sunday.
Each victim left behind families and friends, who are often left to make sense of their tragedies. On Friday night a brother and sister were shot and killed in southwest Atlanta. Their mother and the 25-year-old man's young daughter were devastated.
"I love my children," the victims' said.
"This was senseless. It didn’t make any sense," according to another relative.
The department's most recent crime data set from the week ending on Aug. 14 shows the city's murders are beating last year's record pace. Atlanta has seen an 8% increase in murders from 2020. Four of the Atlanta Police Department's six policing zones reported increases in murders year-over-year.
Sunday marks the 34th week of 2021, the fastest the Atlanta Police Department has reported 100 annual murders in at least the past decade. Data from the Atlanta Police Department dates back to 2010 when there were 54 reported murders in the city by Week 34.
Atlanta police reported 92 murders by this week last year. It wasn't until Week 40 in 2020 when APD data shows police reached 102 reported murders. There were 154 reported murders last year.
This will be the third time Atlanta police have reported more than 100 total murders in at least one decade. There were 110 murders in 2016 — 74 murders reported by Week 34.
The murder totals fell off the following year, but have since climbed steadily. The Atlanta Police Department reported 95 murders in 2019, 88 in 2018 and 80 in 2017.
Crime is a focal point of the race for Atlanta's next mayor with each candidate offering their solution to curbing crime.
Police Chief Rodney Bryant, who took over for former chief Erika Shields during the fallout from Rayshard Brooks' death, was formally confirmed at his post in May. He implemented a summer plan to curb crime by focusing patrols on zones where crimes were more common and increasing vigilance on weekend evenings.
"We have strategies in place to tackle that to reduce the type of violence we are seeing around those locations," Bryant said during a one-on-one interview with FOX 5 Atlanta earlier this year. "We have to work immediately with legislators our city council and administration to address the loopholes for those entities to operate in such a fashion,"
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