THE STORIES BEHIND THE NUMBERS
In the first seven months of 2019, 234 people were victims of homicide in Harris County. Every month on our website, we will document these deaths.
Michael Haynie, a beloved member of Houston’s storied skate group the Urban Animals, was struggling to keep a job and a roof over his head when a security guard found him digging through trash and fatally shot him. Dozens of mourners gathered recently at Rudyard’s on Waugh to remember the 60-year-old man as a lover of live music, especially the punk shows at the Montrose pub.
“He didn’t have health insurance, so he started to selfmedicate, and that started getting him in trouble,” said
Haynie’s longtime friend, Randy Croft, during the tribute. “He would end up on the street. He would call us but not tell us. I didn’t know if that was pride or what.”
The security guard alleged to have shot him outside the washeteria near Hobby Airport has been charged with murder.
Haynie was among the 234 people who have been the victim of a homicide in Harris County through July this year, according to data from the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences. That’s more than one person per day.
Harris County saw close to 10 homicides per every 100,000 residents in 2017, dipping down to a little more than nine in 2018, according to the data. This is part of a nationwide trend in which the homicide rate has been in decline in major American cities.
Cook County, where Chicago is located, declined from 16 homicides per capita in 2017 to 13.5 in 2018, while Dallas County declined from more than nine homicides per capita to a little under that number, according to data from those cities.
While Harris County had a higher rate than Dallas County in both 2017 and 2018, the homicide rate per 100,000 people was lower than New Orleans and Chicago for those years.
Harris County also has seen fewer homicides at this point in 2019 than in 2017 or 2018, according to the data.
The victims include Maximo Aguilar, 21, and Josue Aguilar, 18, who were shot and killed Feb. 21 when a gunman ambushed them from the roof of a flooded-out home.
The brothers loved the
same Mexican rap group, La Santa Grifa, and had big plans for the rest of their lives. Josue planned to join the Navy, their mother said, while Maximo wanted to be a welder.
Elva Aguilar still thinks about her sons regularly and how much life they had in front of them.
“They were still kids to me, and each one had plans,” she said. “And that guy just cut their plans short.”
Each victim has a story that deserves to be told. Today, the Houston Chronicle is launching its Homicide Report, a tool dedicated to tracking and documenting homicides in Harris County throughout 2019 and beyond.
On a monthly basis, the Chronicle will list any death ruled by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences as a homicide — the death of a human being by the hand of another.
So far in 2019:
• June has been the deadliest month with 41 victims, a sharp increase from the 31 in May. March was the second-deadliest month, with 40 homicides.
• Every month has averaged close to, or more than, one homicide per day.
• Men made up nearly 87 percent of all victims.
• Black residents make up more than 55 percent of victims, the greatest share of any racial group. Hispanics were the second-largest group, comprising about 30 percent of victims.
• About 83 percent of homicides involved a firearm of some kind.
Some of the homicides made headlines beyond the county.
Maleah Davis, a 4-yearold girl whose disappearance captured national attention, was found dead in Hope, Ark.
Mourners gathered outside City Hall and June 9 was proclaimed “Maleah Davis Day.” Family members remembered her as someone who spread love no matter where she went.
Rhogena Nicholas and Dennis Tuttle were shot and killed when Houston police officers entered their home at 7815 Harding St. in a botched drug raid.
Tuttle was a Navy veteran whose brother-in-law remembered him as a quiet, easygoing man and a skilled machinist.
Nicholas was born in Ackerman, Miss., as the daughter of a Lebanese dentist and a Southern housewife. After attending college at a fashion and etiquette school, she moved to Houston in the 1980s.
No matter the circumstances of their death, they were people first.
Each will have their story told with the Chronicle providing basic details of each death.
Readers can help provide fuller stories on each victim by reaching out to the Chronicle at homicidereport@chron.com.