New Orleans Public Safety Analyst Jeff Asher tweets the city “likely” had the highest murder rate in the nation for major cities over the first four months of the year. Major cities defined as those with over 250,000 residents.
Asher tallied 93 unofficial murders through the first four months of the year, and his unofficial tally has New Orleans at 243 murders over the past 12 months.
New Orleans ends April with 93 murders (unofficially) and 243 over the past 12 months.
— Jeff Asher (@Crimealytics) May 1, 2022
New Orleans likely had the highest murder rate in the nation over the first 4 months of the year for big cities (250k+). pic.twitter.com/aWtPoiF0HQ
Metropolitan Crime Commission head Raphael Goyeneche told WWL’s Newell Normand a cycle of street justice and retribution is driving these surging numbers, pointing to Friday night’s Balcony Bar shooting as one example.
“If we don’t get a handle on this, if we don’t start to identify these feuding factions and groups and hold them accountable, we are going to continue to see homicides up over 128% over the last three years,” said Goyeneche.
