OKC homicides down in 2018

Homicides in Oklahoma City this year are the lowest in several years, and police say there’s no clear reason why.

The latest reported homicide was the Sunday shooting death of Jessie Marion Myers, 43, in the parking lot of a convenience store in southwest Oklahoma City. Myers was reportedly shot by Eric Deon Hardesty, 52, who then shot a woman and fled in her car, police said. Hardesty was arrested a short time later.

Myers’ death is considered the 59th homicide for the year. This time last year, there were 80 reported homicides, with the total for the year-climbing to 93. In 2014, 62 homicides were reported in the city, the lowest total in the past six years.

Homicides in the city fluctuate year by year, said Capt. Bo Mathews, spokesman for the Oklahoma City Police Department.

“There’s no way to say why it does that,” Mathews said.

The majority of killings this year have happened in northwest Oklahoma City. Mathews said it’s difficult to label one section of the city as being problematic compared to the rest.

“We’re a very mobile society now, and these guys drive from one place to another for a confrontation,” he said.

Saying there are hotspots for crime around the city, Mathews said high call volumes are met with increased police presence to address the problem.

Mathews said a number of variables come into play as to why fewer people have been killed, including advances

in medicine, technology and an increase in police programs throughout the city.

“For the longest time, we’ve always said that homicide rates have gone down many times is because of the medical attention. Lives are being saved a lot quicker,” he said.

A veteran of the department for decades, Mathews said in the early days he would respond to a shooting call where the victim was still at the scene, waiting for an ambulance to show up to take them to the hospital.

“A lot of lives were lost just because the amount of time from the shooting itself,” he said.

The increased capabilities of ambulance services to respond faster and provide better medical care have led to fewer people dying. The rise of cellphones compared to his early days has also decreased the amount of time waiting for medical treatment.

Police have also seen a rise in the number of assault victims being taken to hospitals by personal vehicles, bypassing the call and wait time for an ambulance.

A number of police programs, including recent overtime programs that have stepped up patrols in crime-ridden neighborhoods, might also be a contributing factor.

“If you look at numbers … it does look like in those certain neighborhoods they’re gathering up guns, they’re gathering up drugs and things that all lead up to shootings, to homicides, to killings,” Mathews said.

In most homicides and acts of violence, the victim and the attacker already know each other, Mathews said.

“It’s going to be a confrontation. It may be a domestic violence killing. It could be a gang violence deal where the gang members know each other,” he said. “(It’s) very, very uncommon for random acts. That doesn’t happen very often.”