Fresno homicides surging toward 2020 numbers — city’s second deadliest year, data shows
The shooting death of a man early Tuesday at the Campus Pointe shopping center near Fresno State was the 38th homicide of 2021 under investigation by the Fresno Police Department.
That’s about double the pace of the first half 2020, when through the end of June there were 19 homicide victims in 18 separate incidents in the city.
But an analysis of crime data released last week by the state Department of Justice reveals that by the end of 2020, the volume of deadly violence ballooned to 77 victims, making last year the deadliest for homicides in Fresno in more than 25 years.
In statistics that reach back to 1987, the 77 people killed last year is second only to 87 victims in 1994.
Of the 77 victims, 73 were killed by guns; the other four were victims of stabbings.
All but 10 of those slain last year were men.
The largest proportion of victims, 51 in total, were between the ages of 18 and 49. Four victims were under the age of 18, including one infant. Nineteen were between the ages of 40 and 65.
The largest number of homicide victims last year – 41 of the 77 people – were of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity. That’s about 53%, slightly higher than the Hispanic/Latino 49.6% proportion of the city’s population.
More than 32% of victims last year were Black – 25 of the 77 victims, a proportion that is more than quadruple the Black population share of 7.4%.
Five of last year’s homicide victims were white, three were Asian, and three were of either other or unknown race.
The slayings in the city of Fresno represented the bulk of the 94 homicides that occurred throughout Fresno County last year. Ten were in the jurisdiction of the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department, one in the city of Clovis, and six were spread among other cities in the county: one in Coalinga, two each in Parlier and Sanger, and one in Selma.
This story was originally published July 8, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
