Memphis Breaks Homicide Record, Again
David Royer and Ashley Paul, WREG, November 20, 2023
Multiple shootings in a violent stretch of days has pushed Memphis to yet another record number of homicides in 2023, with more than a month left in the year.
The city’s homicide toll is 352 for the year as of Nov. 20, Officer Chris Williams with the Memphis Police Department said Monday.
That number surpasses the record of 346 homicides set in 2021. That year surpassed the previous record, which had been set a year earlier.
For comparison, Los Angeles, a city of 3.85 million, reported 272 homicides at the end of October.
Though Memphis homicides cooled slightly in 2022, they jumped back up again this year.
Two hundred ninety-eight of the city’s homicides are considered murders by MPD. New York City, with a population of 8.5 million, reported 333 murders as of Nov. 12.
Two people were killed in a triple shooting in North Memphis on Monday morning. That’s in addition to the three family members who were killed when five people were shot Saturday night.
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According to the Memphis Crime Commission, violent crime in the county is up 5 percent, and overall crime is up 9.6 percent since last year.
