CMPD: Nearly 70 homicides in Charlotte so far this year

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) gave an update on their mid-year crime report about two weeks ago, saying homicides have risen in 2022—up eight percent.

So far in 2022, CMPD says there have been 67 homicides.

That’s 13 more than this time last year.

Just this week alone, WBTV has reported on at least three homicides in Charlotte.

The most recent just last night in east Charlotte.

“I’m extremely frustrated, every morning I wake up and watch the news, and there’s another shooting in Charlotte,” Charlotte City Council District 2 representative Malcolm Graham said.

In the University City area, WBTV has reported on at least three homicides in the past two weeks.

Graham said the approach to tackling the violence has three components.

The first, he said, is “trying to work with our state delegation to get more resources for the local district attorneys office.”

The second, “working with Cure Violence—with Violence Interruption programs to try to get with individuals on the street.”

And another component he said is creating “more opportunities for, recreational opportunities through our park and recs, our boys and girls clubs, etcetera, to keep our young people off the street, into productive activities which leads away from crime.”

Graham said that as a community, we have to be able to resolve issues without turning to a gun.

He’ll be hosting a forum on gun violence on Sept. 15.

Charlotte City Council District 4 representative Renee’ Johnson provided WBTV the following statement:

“The safety and wellbeing of our community and residents is one of the most important priorities we have and really that is about so much that happens in our community – not just policing. Jobs and economic opportunity are also critically important to how we address crime and violence in our community.

In the most recent city budget, we allocated $16 million of ARPA funds to support job and workforce development. That is in addition to several steps the city has taken to engage with our community in this fight against violence, such as the Alternatives to Violence program, the SAFE Charlotte grant program supporting community organizations, and launching the Community Assistance: Respond, Engage, Support (CARES) Team.

It’s also important to point out that we, as a community, look at the criminal justice system as a whole. Chief Jennings has spoken about this at length recently, specifically on the bond issue and how people who commit violent crimes can sometimes get back on the street quickly.

The community should know that we are working on this issue, but it is one that we have to address from many different areas and that we have to address together.”

Related: Police: Violent crime up 3% in Charlotte for first half of 2022

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