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The year 2021 for Houston was one of the worst in terms of homicides as the city experienced an 18% jump from 2020, according to the city’s police department.
As of the penultimate day of last year, CBS affiliate KHOU reported, Houston logged at least 470 murders.
The increase marks the second consecutive year in a row that homicides have risen in Houston.
From 2019 to 2021, homicides soared by 71%, according to KHOU.
Authorities attribute the year-to-year surge to the COVID-19 pandemic, with homicides reaching a 43% crescendo last July.
Houston police said in a statement obtained by NBC affiliate KPRC that while 2021 ranks among the city’s deadliest years – 1981 was the worst with 700 murders committed – the murder rate dipped since July 1.
“So, for the past six months, since July 1, our murder rate numbers have been trending down,” the statement said.
However, the trend didn’t paint a positive picture for Tomaro Bell, the chairman of the MacGregor super neighborhood group.
“The pendulum should not have swung the way it is,” Bell told KPRC.
It was in early July when a road rage incident following an Astros game led to the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old boy.
According to the Houston Daily, Westside High School student David Castro was shot after he, his brother and his father left Minute Maid Park on the night of July 6.
The shooting occurred after David’s father, who was driving the family truck, had a tense encounter with the alleged gunman near the ballpark on Chartres Street near Preston.
The suspect, identified as Gerald Wayne Williams, fired into the vehicle, striking the teen.
David was subsequently rushed to Memorial Hermann Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries two days later.
Police said Williams surrendered to authorities almost a month after the shooting.
A 40-year-old woman was the city’s 473rd murder victim of 2021.
ABC13 reported that the woman was fatally shot outside a residence in the 3500 block of Gillespie near Bringhurst Street in northeast Houston.