Akron sees deadliest month in recent history
Woody Cisterna, 29, was found with multiple gunshot wounds on a Kenmore Boulevard sidewalk. His death Thursday night marked the 29th murder in Akron this year and cemented July as one of the city’s deadliest months in a decade.
Why violence rises is complicated, but federal prosecutors say it’s happening in major cities across the country.
“It’s never gone up this dramatically in as many different places,” said Justin Herdman, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. “That is not something I’ve seen before.”
In 2019, the city reported 33 murders for the year and 32 in 2018.
Post 2016, murder and homicide statistics are separated by Akron police. Self-defense killings or killings ruled accidental are counted as homicides, but aren’t counted as murders. Ultimately, courts decide whether a killing was murder, manslaughter or something else.
Whether counting homicides or murders, Akron police haven’t investigated this many of either by the end of July in at least decade, according to police records back to 2010.
Nine murders this July makes it tied for the deadliest month since 2017. According to Akron police data, May 2017 was the last time officers investigated nine killings in a month. Seven people died that month in a single incident that authorities ruled an arson.
June 2020 also was deadly compared to recent history with eight killings. The last time Akron police investigated eight homicides in a month was December 2011.
Akron is on pace for one of its worst years in terms of killings. The end-of-July murder total is the highest it’s been since at least 2010.
Herdman said the crime rates in Akron and Toledo are the most troubling in Northern Ohio, but other major cities such as Cleveland and Canton have seen these rises, too, as have the nation’s large metropolitan areas.
Herdman said there are many factors in play, and it’s hard to create a theory on crime increases while you’re in the middle of dealing with it.
“Someday criminologists will be able to make some hard-and-fast cause based on evidence,” Herdman said. “Were in the middle for right now, so it’s hard to be confident in any of this stuff.”
Still, a rise in shootings, shutdowns and a disruption in the drug trade could all be factors, Herdman said.
He said the number of shootings has “skyrocketed” in every city this year. The difference between someone being shot, or shot dead, can come down to minutes or millimeters.
“Some of the differences in homicides and non-fatal shootings, you’re talking about a millimeter’s difference in whether they survive or not,” Herdman said, adding that even a minute difference in EMS response time can be fatal.
Gun violence has steadily risen in Akron for the past three years, according to a Beacon Journal analysis of data provided by the city.
Police recorded 186 gun-related crimes in the first six months of 2018, 247 in 2019 and 317 through July 1 of this year. That represents a 70% increase in gun crime.
With the data covering
Jan. 1, 2018, to July 1, 2020, this past May (with 78 gun crimes), June (71) and April (59) were the three highest months for gun violence in the past 2½ years.
The big picture
One large issue is the drug trade, Herdman said. The rise of synthetic opioids such as fentanyl means cheap drugs with a high profit margin. He said drug sales mean more illegal guns, which means more gun violence.
He said it’s not the same violence the country saw in the 1980s and 1990s with turf wars. Herdman said retaliatory shootings and guns being used to solve quarrels are much more common.
Crime rising in major cities is also correlating with the shutdowns to stop the coronavirus, Herdman said. In Cleveland, he said the rise was seen as early as late March, and it’s a correlation seen across the board in cities.
David Licate, a professor of criminal justice studies at the University of Akron, said criminologists are proposing different theories, but that experts are looking at a snapshot and not a full picture of what is happening.
“This could be the beginning of the trend, or this could be normal variation,” Licate said. “We’re going to have to wait to find out.”
Licate said factors that drive crime are like slot machines. The many facets can land in random places, and when they line up, you see a spike.
He said rising statistics could be snapshots, and not true trends. In this case, however, cities everywhere are seeing the same thing.
“It’s not just Akron or Cleveland,” Licate said “It’s many, many metropolitan areas all moving in the same direction at the same time.”
The current speculation, he said, is that the pandemic could have led to a few factors that affected the increase.
Domestic violence has risen during the shutdowns, and homicides rise when domestic violence does, Licate said. He said disruption in drug markets will generally lead to increases as well.
Another factor could be recent movements expressing distrust in public institutions. Licate said that has always had an impact on crime rates, even dating back to the Revolutionary War.
It’s still too early to know if the recent rise in homicides is a random variation, or if it breaks the threshold to be a trend. It’s also too early to know why it’s rising.
“Is it cause and effect — we’re not there yet,” Licate said. “We do have a lot of
cross-sectional data.”
Potential solutions
With crime rising, community-based solutions may be the answer.
Juveniles are more involved in shootings than in the past, Herdman said. He said working with young offenders is an important form of intervention.
He said working with a 15-year-old gives them a chance to get on the right path, and it’s a much better one than when they’re even a few years older.
“We recognize that preventing somebody from going down that road pays huge dividends in the long run,” Herdman said.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office coordinates the Northern Ohio Violent Crime Consortium (NOVCC), which consists of representatives from the eight largest police departments in Northern Ohio, including Akron.
Herdman said Akron leads the way in the NOVCC with good community solutions to focus on crime in the most violent parts of town.
“They’ve come up with a really holistic approach to addressing violent crime in certain neighborhoods that have been plagued by violence,” Herdman said.
He said Akron also has a good homicide solve rate compared to other departments in the area.
According to a Beacon Journal analysis of police documents, Akron police have solved 20 of 29 murders they’ve investigated this year for a 69% solve rate in 2020.
The FBI reported the national solve rate in 2018 at 62.3%. Detectives say those numbers go up over time, since homicide cases are lengthy and can take six months to a year, or longer.