The Grand Rapids Police Department announced on Wednesday that ten homicides took place in 2016.
That number might rise to 12, as two deaths are still waiting for an official "Manner of Death" classification from the Medical Examiner's Office. Both of those deaths were due to gunshot wounds.
“One homicide is one too many,” Grand Rapids Police Sgt. Terry Dixon said. “But those numbers reflect where we should be with a city of around 200,000. And those numbers are far less than they were ten years ago,” he said.
By contrast, Grand Rapids has far less homicides than across the state. Detroit Police yesterday announced that 302 murders were recorded in 2016. That’s up from 295 homicides in 2015.
The same number of homicides in Grand Rapids took place in 2015, as ten murders were confirmed then by Grand Rapids Police.
“The Grand Rapids Police Department will continue to strive to do better,” Dixon said.
