Wichita teen charged with second-degree murder following downtown shooting
5 October 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — The Wichita Police Department shared new data that shows deadly and non-fatal shootings are up for 2023 compared to 2022.
WPD provided data to KSN that compares numbers from January to Oct. 4 of the previous four years.
“We are seeing what we’d expect as far as the mean goes,” said WPD Captain Christian Cory.
Captain Cory said the 2023 numbers are coming back to what the department expects to see compared to average statistics by the department.
From Jan. 2022 to Oct. 4, 2022, 18 people were shot and killed. Another 89 were injured.
So far this year, 30 people killed and 101 injured from shootings.
“Sometimes things will go up or go down, and it kind of, like I said, reverse back to the mean, and that is kind of what we are seeing this year. As to why? Don’t necessarily know,” said Captain Cory.
In the past five years, only 2020 saw more deadly shootings in the first nine months of the year than 2023.
This year, WPD said the most shooting victims at a single scene was at the former nightclub City Nightz. Nine were shot and injured.
The WPD said staffing and technology are part of their response.
“We’ve got a new crime gun intelligence center sergeant. We are also working on some data analysts with our crime analysts figuring out who our most active folks are,” said Captain Cory.
WPD also analyzes the locations and times where crimes happen and will change the department’s response to that area to help with crime reduction, such as working with businesses or adding more patrols.
Police continue to work with church leaders and community activists to focus on crime prevention.
Another crime up this year is domestic violence homicides.
In 2022 and 2021, only two deaths each year.
So far this year, six domestic violence homicides, only 2020 surpassing that number with 13.
Captain Cory said the Domestic Intervention & Violence Reduction Team (DIVRT) helps to hold offenders accountable and follow up with victims.
DIVRT is part of a cops grant and runs through September 2024, but Captain Cory expects the team of six and a supervisor to stay with how much progress they’ve made.