With the year’s end rapidly approaching and a whopping total of 88 homicides that have already taken place in Allegheny County as of Oct. 31; 2014 is sure to be a deadlier year than the last. In 2013 there were a total of 91 homicides—that’s only three more and there’s still about two months left in the year.
Not only are we on point to surpass last year’s totals, there is a possibility that 2014 will have the largest number of homicides in the county since 2008. In 2008 there were 120, in 2009 there were 87, in 2010 there were 100, in 2011 there were 71 and in 2012 there were 96 homicides.
Along with the disheartening fact that October had a double-digit total of homicides, 10, they were all Black males and most of them under the age of 30. For instance, there was the senseless shooting of a 17-year-old Pittsburgh School District high school student who was killed while leaving his house to go to school and the killing of a 29-year-old city employee who was killed while waiting to begin his workday. And while he was slightly over the age of 30, there was an East Liberty man who was killed while trying to see his daughter.
We as a community need to put an end to the senseless shootings taking place in our communities. We all have a vested interest and we all have a part. It’s time that we act like it and do something. We cannot afford to pay the price of another young Black life.
As part of an ongoing effort to heighten awareness about the effects of murder in Black communities, the New Pittsburgh Courier will compile a list of homicides in the County each month. It is our hope that as the list of victims grows, so will a true understanding of how these lost lives affect the mental health, economic well being and self-images of the region’s Black neighborhoods.
Out of the 88 murders, thus far, in 2014—73 were Black and 68 were Black men.
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