There were 24 crime scenes and 32 victims of shootings in the city of Detroit from 6 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Tuesday morning, this past Labor Day weekend.
The violence included included the murder of a 25-year-old man who was shot in the back of the head Saturday night in southwest Detroit.
Police Chief James Craig held a news conference Tuesday morning to talk about the crimes.
He said while there is a small spike in homicides, overall crime is significantly lower.
“I don’t want to diminish the importance of shooting incidents. One shooting, one incident is one too many,” said Chief Craig.
According to the chief, this holiday weekend there were four fatal shootings and 28 non-fatal shootings.
Last year, there were 10 fatal and 28 non-fatal, making a deadlier holiday weekend in 2015.
However, there are six more homicides this year to date than there were last year.
By this time in 2015 there were 201. This year there are 206. Non-fatal shootings last year totaled 761 while this year they are at 662.
Chief Craig said there have been 119 fewer carjackings.
“Robberies… again we are fighting last year’s statistics double-digit reductions,” said Chief Craig. “We are sitting on a 15 percent reduction. In robberies, that translates into 337 fewer robberies in the city of Detroit.”
Chief Craig believes programs that help businesses help fight crime, and an increase in the public’s trust are aiding in lower crime numbers.
“How many times have you seen over this past year that when we have a person of interest, a person who may have been involved in a violent crime whether it’s a shooting or homicide… and within hours of that incident, putting that picture out to you that the suspect is in custody,” said Chief Craig.
