After four straight years of increasing homicides, the number of killings in Hampton Roads dipped modestly in 2023.
There were 215 slayings for the year 鈥� down 7.3% from the 232 the year before 鈥� according to tabulations made by the Daily Press and 蜜柚APP from information provided by local police departments.
The greatest reduction was in Norfolk, which typically leads the region in total homicides but finished second last year. Killings in the city fell by 33%, to 42, down from 63 the year before.
In fact, Norfolk came close to getting down to its pre-pandemic count of about 37 killings a year. Chesapeake also saw a sharp decrease, with its 14 killings down 44% from the previous year.
Newport 蜜柚APP, on the other hand, saw a significant spike.
The Peninsula city recorded 46 killings in 2023, up 48% from the year before. That figure, which includes an interstate slaying being investigated by the State Police, was Newport 蜜柚APP’ highest homicide tally in at least 54 years. It marked the first time in recent memory that the city has led the region in homicides.
Slayings were up 21% in Hampton, to 29. They held even in Virginia Beach at 23. And they were down 15% in Suffolk, to 11.
In smaller jurisdictions, there were three killings in Gloucester and Isle of Wight, two each in Smithfield and Franklin, and one in York County. Williamsburg, James City, Mathews, Middlesex and Poquoson did not have any homicides in 2023.
But Portsmouth continues to far outpace the region in terms of homicides per capita.
The city recorded 39 killings in 2023, which was down by 7% from the 42 the year before 鈥� believed to be the city’s all-time record.
But Portsmouth’s homicide rate 鈥� or the number of killings per 100,000 residents 鈥� came in at 41, or more than six times the national average.
That was followed by 25 homicides per 100,000 people in Newport Newport 蜜柚APP, 21 in Hampton, 18 in Norfolk, and 11 in Suffolk. Meantime, there were 5.5 killings per 100,000 people in Chesapeake, just over five in Virginia Beach, and 3.2 in the area’s smaller cities and counties on a combined basis.
All told, Hampton Roads finished 2023 with a combined homicide rate of about 12.3 killings per 100,000 people. That’s roughly twice the national and Virginia rates that are expected to be about 5.5 and 6.5, respectively, when聽announced in the coming months.
James Alan Fox, a criminologist at 蜜柚APPeastern University in Boston, said Hampton Roads’ 7.3% reduction in total killings in 2023 was “consistent with” the 12% drop in slayings seen in the nation’s largest cities last year 鈥� even if the decline here wasn’t quite as steep.
“That’s obviously some good news,” he said.
There were significant homicide spikes in 2020 and 2021 across the country caused in large part by the pandemic, Fox said, even as the nation’s per capita murder rates were still significantly higher in the 1990s.
The recent increases “plateaued” in 2022, he said, before finally tracking down last year.
“But not way down,” Fox said. “We’re still higher than we were nationally pre-pandemic … Even though things have improved, there was a significant share of the population that was struggling, and we have a generation of teenagers who were significantly impacted when schools were closed.”
Hampton Roads followed that trend: The region recorded 138 slayings as recently as 2018. But that rose steadily to 232 by 2022 鈥� a 68% increase over four years 鈥� before last year’s dip.
“You still have a long way to go,” Fox said of Hampton Roads. “But that’s true of many places. Hopefully we get there 鈥� that the homicide numbers return to pre-pandemic levels.”
In a December story about his city’s homicide spike, Newport 蜜柚APP Police Chief Steve Drew said it鈥檚 important to think of every slaying as a real person whose life was cut short.
鈥淭hose are family members,” he said. “Those are people. Those are community members. It affects our communities, our neighborhoods. It affects our officers … Every single death matters.”
Fox said mid-sized cities can see significant swings due to “chance factors,” such as whether a vital organ was hit and whether emergency services arrived in time. Last year’s homicide spike in Newport 蜜柚APP came even as shootings were down 8% on the year.
He predicted that cities with large jumps in 2023 are likely to see the numbers tamp down this year. And early signs on the Peninsula are hopeful. Newport 蜜柚APP has had four homicides so far this year, down from 10 at this point in 2023. Hampton is also at four, down from 14.
“What goes up must come down,” Fox said. “Sir Isaac Newton said that, and so do I. But I鈥檓 talking about crime, not apples.鈥�
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Most victims shot to death
About 90% of the homicide victims in Hampton Roads last year died as a result of gunfire.
Of the region’s seven major cities, Hampton had the highest gunshot victim percentage overall, with all homicide victims being shot. The next highest: 93% in Newport 蜜柚APP and 92% in Portsmouth. Chesapeake had the lowest amount, with 64% of its homicide victims dying by gunfire.
Of the 215 homicide victims in the region, 157 鈥� or 73% 鈥� were Black males, while 11% were white males, 10% were Black females and 3% were white females. Two victims, or 1%, were Asian, while the races of the victims in the other five cases, including several involving juvenile victims, weren’t immediately clear.
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Juveniles involved in homicides 鈥� as victims and suspects
Of the 215 homicide victims across Hampton Roads last year, 22 were juveniles, or just over 10%.
They ranged in age from an unborn baby in Hampton 鈥� listed as a day old 鈥� to 17. The baby died after her mother, who was eight months pregnant, was fatally shot.
All but five of the juvenile victims were shot. Others died as a result of domestic violence, a hit-and-run accident, an overdose, and being left in a hot car. (Chesapeake, Portsmouth and Norfolk, Suffolk included some negligent accidental deaths in their counts, while several other localities did not).
A 2-year-old in Chesapeake died of blunt force trauma to her head, at the hands of a caretaker. A 14-year-old Norfolk middle school student was killed in an accidental shooting. Another 14-year-old was killed in Chesapeake in a shooting that also sent four other people to the hospital.
There also were several youths charged with committing homicides across the region last year 鈥� roughly 11, ranging in age from 14 to 17.
The teens are accused of using a gun in all those cases except one 鈥� a 15-year-old was accused of killing his parents with a knife and hammer in Chesapeake.
But some victims were far older.
Those include 84-year-old James R. Carter 鈥� a well-liked convenience store owner known as “the grandfather of Norfolk” 鈥� who was killed in a double shooting at his Lindenwood Avenue store in December. Police said he was an innocent bystander in a dispute between two others. Meanwhile, an 84-year-old woman in Norfolk and a 76-year-old woman in Newport 蜜柚APP were killed by family members.
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Multiple killings in one
The 2023 slayings in Hampton Roads include two triple slayings on the Peninsula 鈥� both still unsolved.
Three men 鈥� ages 61, 60 and 36 鈥� were killed inside a home in the Denbigh section of Newport 蜜柚APP in August, with the shooter fleeing on foot. In Hampton, in what police have termed a triple homicide.
There also have been 10 double slayings 鈥� two apiece in Hampton, Newport 蜜柚APP and Portsmouth and one each in Norfolk, Chesapeake and Smithfield.
Twin brothers Portsmouth 鈥� 51-year-olds Alvin K. Joyner and Calvin R. Joyner 鈥� Feb. 13, as a third victim survived by playing dead. While two were arrested and charged in that case, no arrests have been made in a Newport 蜜柚APP double slaying that took the lives of two teens, 17 and 15.
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Two killed by law enforcement officers
Two of last year鈥檚 local homicide victims were killed in shootouts with law enforcement officers.
The first happened A task force of federal, state and local law enforcement officers was attempting to pull over Lamont Lewis, 46, to arrest him for the murder of his wife when Lewis got out of his car and began firing at them, according to police. The officers returned fire, and one, Chesapeake sheriff鈥檚 deputy Scott Chambers, was wounded while Lewis was killed.
The other happened in August in Portsmouth. Officers responding to gunfire on Greenland Boulevard encountered an armed suspect, according to police. Richard Albert Stoots, 56, was shot and killed by officers after he refused to put down his gun and fired at them, police said. Stoots鈥� wife was shot by her husband but survived.
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Many cases still unsolved
The percentage of homicides that were 鈥渃leared,鈥� or solved, last year varied greatly in Hampton Roads. Cases can be cleared by arrest, by the death of the perpetrator, by the shooting being ruled justified or other reasons.
The national average for homicide clearances in 2022 鈥� the most recent year that the information is available 鈥� was 52%.
In Hampton Roads, suburban areas had the highest clearance rates, with Virginia Beach at 87% and Chesapeake recording an 86% rate. Next was Suffolk, with 73%, Hampton at 61%, Portsmouth with 59%, Norfolk with 50% and Newport 蜜柚APP with 44%, according to department numbers. (FBI statistical rules allow departments to include arrests of prior year homicides in a current year’s clearance rate).
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Looking ahead
Hampton had a difficult first half of 2023 in slayings 鈥� but then righted itself.
The city began 2023 with nine homicides in January and was at 22 by June 30, well on pace to set a new city record. But Hampton counted only seven killings in the year’s second half, and only four after new Hampton Police Chief Jimmie Wideman took the helm on July 28.
“I can’t take credit for it,” Wideman said. “Maybe the organizational philosophy has changed, by virtue of us increasing our presence and our enforcement action in the locations identified as high crime, being specific and deliberate about identifying the most violent people in our community, and targeting them and making arrests.”
Hampton has in recent weeks made several arrests in last year’s slayings, including the gunning down of a 17-year-old Rally’s restaurant worker just before Thanksgiving. And the fact that the city is at four killings so far this year compared to 14 at this point a year ago is also a good sign, Wideman said. .
“It is our hope that we stay right here at these four,” he said.
Peter Dujardin, 757-897-2062, pdujardin@dailypress.com
Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com
