Homicides and robberies up in Richmond

Law-enforcement officials are blaming drugs and the economy for a spike in homicides this year in Richmond.

City police have recorded 27 slayings this year, just five shy of the 32 homicides for all of 2008. Last year's total was the lowest the city had seen in decades.

Robberies of individuals and larcenies also are outpacing last year's numbers, leading to a 6 percent increase in overall major crime this year that follows five consecutive annual decreases in major crime.

"There are a lot of desperate people doing a lot of dangerous things," Richmond Police Chief Bryan T. Norwood said Thursday night at a prayer vigil outside the Come and Go Food Market in South Richmond, where a shopkeeper was slain the week before.

Learned Barry, a veteran Richmond homicide prosecutor, agreed that the economic downturn appears to be fueling deadly robberies, some of them drug-related.

However, Barry said last year's total of 32 homicides was an anomaly -- the city's lowest number since at least 1971.

This year likely will end with about 50 homicides, Barry said. Although that total would end four straight years of declines in homicides, it still would represent an overall improvement when viewed historically.

From 1971 through 2008, the city averaged more than 80 homicides each year, Barry said. The number peaked at 160 killings in 1994.

City police logged 55 homicides in 2007, 81 in 2006 and 86 in 2005. The previous two years, they were in the mid-90s.

This April, when the count had reached 15, authorities expressed concern that they were seeing an alarming rise in drug-related slayings that had begun in the last three months of 2008.

Authorities said at least 10 of those 15 deaths were in some way drug-related, often targeting would-be drug buyers viewed as easy targets because they almost always carry cash.

Richmond police declined last week to break down this year's 27 homicides by motive.

Councilwoman Reva M. Trammell, who leads the city's public-safety committee, said she believes drugs are more to blame for the violence than is the economy.

She said a community forum is planned for Thursday evening at the Satellite Restaurant, 4000 Jefferson Davis Highway, to discuss two recent shootings along the corridor.

Ashraf M. Alatiyat, a co-owner of Come and Go Food Market and who was known to his friends as Alex, was shot and killed in a robbery at the store June 9.

Three nights later and three blocks away, a clerk at the Golden Food Market on Jefferson Davis was shot six times in another robbery. He survived.

"It's more than just the economy," Trammel said, "when you rob someone and then you turn around and shoot them like an animal."

Alicia Rasin, founder of Citizens Against Crime, acts as a spokeswoman for families of homicide victims. She said she is noticeably busier this year than she was last year, and she blames a tough job market for the robbery-related homicides.

"I have had more young men coming to me and asking me and saying, 'Ms. Rasin, do you know where I could put down for a job?'"

Tammy D. Hawley, press secretary to Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones, also cited a poor economy and said the mayor supports the police department's efforts.

Norwood said his department has deployed several successful crime-reduction efforts, such as a firearms initiative, and he credited partnerships with other law-enforcement agencies and numerous community-policing efforts.

"I think you'd be hard-pressed to find another police department" as closely involved in as many neighborhoods, the chief said.

Norwood noted that despite this year's 13 percent spike in robberies of individuals, commercial robberies are down 43 percent, according to figures through June 14 of this year compared with the same period last year.

"We're going to get through it," Norwood said.

Contact Reed Williams at (804) 649-6332 or .