NLR, LR end year with rise in killings

Homicide spike part of U.S. trend

Little Rock and North Little Rock hit decade high homicide incidents in 2020, according to police department statistics.

Little Rock finished the year with 56 homicides, beating its 2017 total of 52 for the highest total in a decade.

Across the river, North Little Rock reported 23 homicide victims making that the most in the decade.

North Little Rock Police spokesman officer Joe Green said last year that, because of the opportunistic nature of homicides, investigators cannot determine a singular reason for the increase.

“Homicides are not a thing that you can predict or even put a prediction model on it,” Green said. “Homicides are usually opportunistic. They just occur when they occur. There’s nothing you can do to try to stem the homicide rate.”

According to Green, homicides can be anything from domestic incidents to drug deals gone bad, and they all must be treated as individual cases instead of statistical measurements.

“It’s not something you can go in and say, “Do you think this is the reason the homicide occurred?” Green said. “There’s no reason because we don’t know the reason until we find the suspect and talk to them.”

Green did acknowledge that violent crime rate around the country has been unusually high.

“The violent crime rate this past year, it well exceeded what we usually have on a yearly basis, and we don’t know a reason for that,” Green said. “I would be lying if I told you that I knew a reason for why the

crime rate spiked this year.”

Homicides for 2020 in North Little Rock have nearly all been resolved by either being ruled justified, having arrests made or other means, according to Green.

Detectives are still investigating the homicides of Robert Smith and Jalen Lambert on Nov. 5, Shameka Stewart on Aug. 8 and Raymond Gary on June 2.

Gary, 32, was shot on the 1500 block of West 20th St on June 2 and died of complications from his injuries on June 6.

Police found Stewart, 42, suffering from gunshot wounds that ultimately killed her on Aug. 8 in the roadway of West 25th Street.

Smith, 22, and Lambert, 21, were found with gunshot wounds at 12:45 a.m. on 1315 Pine Street on Nov. 5. Smith was pronounced dead at the scene while Lambert later died from injuries at a hospital.

Anyone with information that could help solve the investigations can call (501) 680-8439.

Little Rock Police spokesman Lt. Casey Clark previously theorized the pandemic may have been a potential factor in the increase of violent crime because families that may not spend more than a few hours together got stuck in their homes for weeks and months.

According to department spokesman Mark Edwards, that is still likely a factor.

Edwards said the spike in homicides is a national issue. He mentioned that Indianapolis already reported 5 homicides by Jan. 3.

Cities across the country have reported higher homicide numbers including Chicago with 769, the most since 2016, and New York City with 447, the most since 2011, according to the Associated Press.

“It’s all over the country, man,” Edwards said. “Violent crime across the country is up. It wasn’t just us.”

Little Rock had five homicides that were determined to be justified and two involving children playing with firearms that were ruled negligent.

“There were seven that were either justifiable or negligent,” Edwards said.