Like many other cities across the USA, Little Rock saw an explosion in Black-on-Black homicides coinciding with the nationwide Black Lives Matter riots. Little Rock, Arkansas, is now set to potentially have its highest homicide rate in the city’s history for 2022.
Year: # of homicides (population, homicide rate)
1993: 70 (178k, 39.3 per 100k) – all-time record
2015: 31 (198k, 15.6 per 100k) – twenty-two year low
2016: 42 (199k, 21.1 per 100k)
2017: 55 (198k, 27.8 per 100k)
2018: 41 (198k, 20.7 per 100k)
2019: 43 (198k, 21.7 per 100k)
2020: 56 (202k, 27.7 per 100k)
2021: 65 (202k, 32.2 per 100k)
There have been seventy homicides in the first ten months of 2022. On track for a possible homicide rate of 41.6 per 100k.
Little Rock is roughly 45% White and 42% Black. A huge majority of all homicides are Black on Black. In 2021, the Little Rock, AR, police department reported to the FBI that 94% of known homicide suspects were Black, and 6% were White or Latino. Among the victims, 92% of homicide victims were Black.
That is not to say that all homicides committed by Black suspects have a Black victim. On August 1st, Daniel Webster Felton, a 64-year-old White male, was randomly murdered in the driveway of his own home. The suspect is Markistan Gines, an 18-year-old Black male. On July 7th, Isaiah Hall, an 18-year-old White male, was shot in a parking lot. On April 7th, Dolan Wayne Goff, a 26-year-old White male, was murdered when he tried to break up a fight between teenagers. A 17-year-old was arrested, but his identity was classified due to age.
Many small, majority Black towns in Arkansas have even far higher homicide rates.
Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
In 2017, the town had its highest homicide rate in the city’s history. In 2021, the homicide rate surged 41% over the 2017 record. The only cities with over 100k people that had higher homicide rates in 2021 were Jackson, MS, and St. Louis, MO.
2017: 22 (43,165, 51.1 per 100k)
2018: 15 (42,422, 35.4 per 100k)
2020: 23 (40,951, 56.2 per 100k)
2021: 29 (40,244, 72.1 per 100k)
Pine Bluff, AR is 78% Black.
