As Wichita sees younger people involved in homicides, chief points to potential causes

The average age of Wichita’s homicide victims in 2019 was around 33. In 2020, it was about 31.

So far in 2021, the average age of the city’s victims is almost 26.

The average age of murder suspects so far in 2021 also is about 25. That’s down from around the age of 31 in 2019 and 30 in 2020.

Besides seeing a lower age of victims and suspects in 2021, the 10 homicides so far this year are ahead of the nine at this time in 2020.

Police have arrested four teens — 18, 17 and two 16-year-olds — for suspicion of murder so far in 2021.

The string of 2021 homicides — which in February have involved a boyfriend and girlfriend, ages 17 and 18, and a 14-year-old boy and 13-year-old girl — prompted Wichita police chief Gordon Ramsay to ask that parents be more active in their child’s lives during a news conference earlier this month.

“I do have significant concerns about the increase that we have been seeing in gun violence and I implore our community members and parents to get more engaged in their kid’s lives… and do everything you can to help us turn these numbers around,” Ramsay said.

Ramsay pointed to several issues that he believes “feeds into” the violence and all are due to COVID-19: school closures, impact on sports and delays in the court system.

Factors in the homicides

Wichita schools brought its middle and high school students back to the classroom in a hybrid model last month. Although, those students could keep learning from home if their parents chose to.

COVID-19 community spread caused Wichita schools to initially cancel fall sports before reversing course. Sports haven’t stopped since, but attendance has been limited.

Cases filed by the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office dropped sharply during the pandemic. The office usually files an average of around 4,600 cases a year, with adult cases accounting for roughly 3,600 of those cases, according to 2017-2019 data. In 2020, when the pandemic hit, 2,589 adult and 598 juvenile cases were filed.

“In 2020, we had to exercise our discretion and prioritize further by filing fewer first time non-violent property and drug crimes,” District Attorney Marc Bennett said in an email, adding the office has focused instead on filing cases in violent crimes. “The court system does not have the ability to process cases at the rate we would have previously, because to be in compliance with health regulations, social distancing protocols and the orders of the Supreme Court, each courtroom has to be cleaned after each witness and then again after each case.”

“Additionally, delays have also been frequent due to witnesses, judges, litigants and attorneys having to quarantine – which then causes us to have to reschedule, which again chews up court time.”

The kink in the court system has impacted inmates housed at the Sedgwick County Jail as well. The jail had a record 110 murder suspects, Sheriff Jeff Easter said in December.

Jumps in crime

Wichita wasn’t alone in seeing a 2020 spike in homicides.

Kansas City broke its single-year record of homicides in 2020 by October and Cincinnati also set its record. In Lubbock, Texas, the homicide rate more than doubled and in Milwaukee it nearly doubled over the previous year.

Ramsay said Wichita’s spike in violent crimes “seemed to start around the time of the pandemic.”

“Last year, our drive-by shootings were up a whopping 101%” from 2019, Ramsay said in the first episode of a YouTube series released the first week of February. “Our homicides were also up 34%.”

He said the increase of “youth with time on their hands” also led to “graffiti, vandalism and other related crime” being up as well.

Overall, though, the category of crimes that includes homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and auto thefts were down 3% from 2019, he said.

In the video, Ramsay also mentions an arrest rate in homicides that’s above the national average.

Return to normal

Widespread COVID-19 vaccination could curb the problems mentioned by Ramsay.

But there are a few problems.

For one, not everyone wants a COVID-19 vaccine.

Sixty-percent of Americans said they would “definitely” or “probably” get the vaccine in November, up from 51% who said the same thing in September, according to Pew Research Center. Sixty-five percent of Sedgwick County residents plan to get the COVID-19 vaccine when they can, according to a survey by the University of Kansas School of Medicine, Wichita.

But, even for the people who want the vaccine, there’s not enough to go around or they aren’t eligible for it yet.

No vaccine has been approved for anyone under the age of 16, but companies are testing a vaccine on younger patients and hope to eventually have approval to distribute that vaccination, according to Boston Children’s Hospital.

Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary Lee Norman said Kansas would need to receive five times more vaccines delivered each week from the federal government in order to have a normal summer.

Contributing: Dion Lefler with The Eagle