Across San Diego County, homicides fell last year — a trend seen in some other large cities and part nationwide return to rates seen before the pandemic. Locally, killings fell by about 18 percent, from 107 in 2022 to 88 in 2023. Across the nation, experts are predicting homicides might have dropped 0 percent. If the decrease holds, if would be among the biggest single-year drops since at least 1960, says the Council on Criminal Justice. The homicide total rose 30 percent in 2020, at the start of the pandemic. The spike has been linked to a storm of potential factors, reports the San Diego Union-Tribune. The pandemic led to the suspension or reduction of many social support programs that communities rely on, one of many COVID-19 realities that fueled greater emotional and economic stress.
“Big social and economic forces appear to have been behind the sharp trends that began in 2020, but now there is considerable variation between cities and crime types that suggests local factors are becoming more significant,” said Adam Gelb. In the San Diego area last year, 15 homeless people were killed, nearly double the number of homeless victims from the prior year. Some of them died after confrontations apparent strangers. Two teens were arrested after Michael Shook, an unhoused man, was stabbed and beaten at a park last year. The next month, Michael Goodin, also homeless, was stabbed and beaten on a trolley platform. Three men have been arrested. Strangers were linked to the death of Annette Pershal, known as”Granny Annie.” The 68-year-old was asleep in a parking lot last year when she was peppered with BB pellets. Prosecutors said one of two teens accused had said he was going “hobo hunting.” In one hour-long spree, a driver got out of his vehicle and opened fire at three different sites. Seven people were shot at. One was grazed and four were struck, one fatally.