Wichita has had more homicides in six weeks than first five months of year, chief says

Wichita has had 11 criminal homicides since early November, or an average of about two killings a week. There have been as many homicides during the past six weeks as there were the first five months of the year, police said.

The killings usually involved drugs, gangs or domestic violence, Wichita police Chief Gordon Ramsay said Wednesday.

“One of the things that we are seeing is many of these people have criminal histories, some of them extensive,” Ramsay said of those arrested in the killings. “That continues to be a concern.”

The south side of town, particularly the Broadway corridor, has been the biggest concern, Ramsay said. In that area, two people were killed at the same motel, Countryside Inn at 803 S. Broadway, within a month. The latest was Monday.

“Any homicide is too many but when you look at our over stats … we have some good things going,” Ramsay said.

Ramsay said he was happy with the department’s clearance rate in criminal cases and year-to-date reductions in a few areas: rape, robbery, burglary and auto theft.

In non-violent crimes through Dec. 8 , burglaries were down 19 percent to 2,608 and auto thefts dropped 16 percent to 2,142, according to the Wichita Police Department data.

Four hundred to 500 fewer cars have been stolen this year, according to Ramsay.

“That’s a significant financial saving for a lot of people,” Ramsay said, adding that he thought lowering those crimes would impact more violent crimes.

Some violent crimes have dropped. For example, rape dropped 6 percent to 389, and robberies plummeted 22 percent to 439. Total shootings year-to-date were at 137 compared with 161 the prior year.

However, there have been 27 fatal shootings so far this year compared with 25 for the same period in 2018.

Aggravated assaults in Wichita are up 1 percent to 2,282.

“The domestic violence numbers, particularly aggravated assault, is rising at an alarming rate,” Ramsay said.

Wichita’s 2018 violent crime rate was more than twice the national average. The high rate helped Wichita be selected earlier this year to participate in a national program that aims to reduce violent crimes.

So far Wichita hasn’t had as many homicides as it had in 2018, which saw 44 homicides — the highest since 1995. Wichita hit an all-time high of 56 homicides in 1993, Ramsay said. Violent crime in the U.S. peaked in the 1990s.

To date in 2019, Wichita has seen 41 homicides. Of those, 33 are classified as criminal homicides — compared with 35 criminal homicides in all of 2018. A criminal homicide does not involve accidental, self-defense or justified police-involved killings.

The Wichita Police Department provided a breakdown of the 41 homicides by type: 18 occurred during a disturbance such as a fight, 7 were drug-related, 3 were classified as domestic violence, 3 happened during a robbery, 2 were gang-related, 2 cases were abuse, 2 were unknown and one was accidental. In three cases officers killed someone.

Three of the homicides were justified, Ramsay said.

The national clearance rate for murder and manslaughter was 62 percent in 2017, according to the most recent data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Ramsay said the department’s clearance rate is around 80 to 90 percent.

In the 11 criminal homicides since Nov. 1, the WPD has made arrests in 10 of the cases. The open case involved the 19-year-old bystander killed on Dec. 1 at 511 Club, 511 North West Street.

Ramsay said he has pulled resources from other units to address some of killings. The department will have more latitude in January, Ramsay said, when the department hires about 40 more employees, bringing it up to roughly 700 employees — the highest staffing levels in WPD history.

One study suggests the department should have roughly 980 officers for a city Wichita’s size.

This story was originally published December 11, 2019 at 5:57 PM.