The homicide count in Pittsburgh rose by nearly 40% last year, but it was an increase that followed a year in which the total was the lowest in nearly two decades.

The 51 killings recorded last year was lower than the number of homicides investigated during the four years before 2019. Countywide, there were a total of 107 killings, up from 95 in 2019. The 56 homicides investigated by Allegheny County police were down from 61 that occurred in 2019.

The spike in the city numbers reflected national trends that show spikes in violent crimes nationwide during the pandemic.

County police Superintendent Coleman McDonough noted there was not a big difference between the 2019 and 2020 numbers in the county.

“Based on the number of homicides and the number of nonfatal shootings we were asked to investigate in 2020, there's really no significant trend for either an increase or a decrease, so I would say in terms of violent crimes, the pandemic had no effect on the numbers,” he said.

“At some point during the pandemic, numbers seemed to be low, but summer numbers ticked back up.”

According to data compiled by Jeff Asher, an analyst and consultant who studies crime, and reported in The Washington Post, 57 police agencies throughout the country cumulatively reported a 36.7% increase in homicides during the first nine months of 2020.

Pittsburgh public safety spokeswoman Cara Cruz said police investigated 51 homicides in 2020, an increase from the 37 reported in 2019. The 2019 figure was the lowest number the city had experienced in two decades.

The city had averaged 50 to 60 homicides a year between 2010 and 2020. In 2014, the city recorded 71, the most in that decade.

Other U.S. cities were on course for similar increases.

Philadelphia had recorded 499 homicides as of late Thursday, 40% more than in 2019 and more than in all of 2013 and 2014 combined. The only time more people were slain in the city was in 1990, when police reported 500 homicides as violence surged alongside an intensifying crack-cocaine epidemic, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Full 2020 homicide statistics were unavailable for many other cities Monday, but partial-year figures from Yahoo Finance showed:

• Atlanta, as of Sept. 5, had recorded 96 homicides; during the same period in 2019, it had 67.

• Indianapolis, 129 through Sept. 1; 98 for that period in 2019.

• St. Louis, 185 through Aug. 31; 136 during that period in 2019.

• New York City, 305 as of Sept. 6; 226 during the same period in 2019.

• Chicago, 524 through Sept. 6; 345 during that period in 2019.

According to FBI data, even smaller cities experienced an increase. Those with fewer than 10,000 residents saw more than a 30% increase in killings in the first nine months of 2020. 

Experts say that although the pandemic seems to have played a significant role in the rise in killings, nonviolent crime was trending downward.

FBI data for the first nine months of 2020 reflect that, The Washington Post said, possibly because there were fewer people on the streets, fewer stores open for business and fewer crimes of opportunity available.

The Allegheny County medical examiner’s office reported Monday that it investigated a total of 114 homicides in 2020, but seven of those occurred outside the county, leaving the county and city combined with 107. In 2019, the medical examiner’s investigated 95 homicides in the city and county combined.

Subtracting the city total from the county total leaves 56 homicides outside the city limits but inside the county police’s jurisdiction. The county also investigated 97 nonfatal shootings, a number that doesn’t include those that occurred in Pittsburgh.

In 2019, county police investigated 61 homicides and 91 nonfatal shootings, not including Pittsburgh numbers.

In some communities outside the city, violent crimes appeared to have been up. Swissvale for example, had seven shootings between June and September. For the whole year, Swissvale recorded two homicides.

Wilkinsburg recorded 13 homicides in 2020, up from 11 in 2019. Penn Hills, however, recorded just five homicides after experience eight in 2019. 

Superintendent McDonough credited Project Safe Neighborhood, a federally funded effort overseen by the county’s  Violent Crimes Firearms Unit, with curbing some violence.

“The unit itself seized 88 guns [in 2020], and we're talking three officers, which is a pretty good rate. Our narcotics unit seized 140 guns, and our department as a whole seized about 280 weapons,” he said.

“[Police] were slowed down by the pandemic to some extent, but we look forward to picking up the pace and hopefully seizing additional firearms this year.”

Lacretia Wimbley: 412-263-1510, lwimbley@post-gazette.com or follow @Wimbleyjourno on Twitter.

First Published: January 5, 2021, 10:30 a.m.
Updated: January 5, 2021, 11:51 a.m.