MILWAUKEE — The City of Milwaukee broke its homicide record for the third year in a row on Saturday, bringing the total number of homicides in the city to 194.
On Saturday, a 43-year-old man was killed near Hopkins and Hampton, the death that broke the record. Police are seeking unknown suspects in that case.
Michael Ray is a business owner in that area who says violent acts like these not only affect safety in the community, but prevent people from investing in the area.
"It's a major setback for me being a business in this area when already a lot of businesses closed over here," said Ray.
According to the Milwaukee Police Department's (MPD) database and media alerts from MPD, there have now been 194 homicides so far this year. At this point last year, there were 170 homicides, and 171 in 2020.
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The city had 193 homicides for the whole year in 2021, which broke 2020's record of 190 homicides.
"To know that we are breaking the homicide record again. [It] just goes to show that we have to work a little bit harder to make sure that that devastation doesn’t continue to be a reality for people," said the program director for the WAVE Educational Fund, Deja Garner.
Garner was born and raised in Milwaukee and told TMJ4 she has lost both friends and family to gun violence in the city.
"The work that I do in gun violence prevention is so future generations and other residents won’t have to feel that anguish and that devastation of losing someone that they love to gun violence," said Garner.
One way she says this can be achieved is by investing more funds into violence prevention in the city.
According to MPD data, homicides are up 13% from last year. Since last Friday, the MPD chart has gone from 190 to 192 homicides.
According to TIME Magazine, Milwaukee ranked third for the most homicides in America's biggest cities in 2021, with a homicide rate of 32 per 100,000. Memphis ranked at the top of the list with 306 homicides in 2021, followed by Detroit with 303.
