March 14, 2016 - Police tape is seen outside of a unit in the Valley Forge Apartments in Whitehaven where a 15-year-old girl was shot and killed. Vianca Harris was pronounced dead on the scene. She is one of 60 homicide victims so far in 2016.

(Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal)

SHARE

By Jody Callahan of The Commercial Appeal

By at least one measure, the homicide rate in Memphis this year is nearly twice that of Chicago, a town that is generating unwanted notoriety for its soaring number of killings.

Through the end of March in Memphis, 60 people had been killed in the violent first three months of the year. As of the latest U.S. Census estimate, the Memphis population stands at 656,861, for a homicide rate of 9.13 victims per 100,000 population.

Through the same period in Chicago, 151 people had been killed. As of the latest U.S. Census estimate, the Chicago population stands at 2,722,389, for a homicide rate of 5.55 victims per 100,000 population.

If the Memphis numbers continue rising at that rate for the rest of the year, the city would record more than 240 homicides, a tally that would obliterate the record of 213 set in 1993.

By any measure, it's too much death, too much killing. And it's overwhelming those in the city charged with responding to it.

"It's an emotional strain on everybody right now, the whole community," Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich said. "But in terms of strain on the office, sure. That's potentially 60 more cases of the most serious nature. These are the most emotionally draining and difficult cases we handle."

Memphis Police Department Acting Lt. Col. of Investigative Services Caroline Mason said the homicide unit was coping with the influx, aided by solving 46 of the 60 killings.

"Homicide is a tight-knit unit. The morale is high because they are solving these cases," she said. "It's not like it's 60 unknown, or mysteries. Again, the solve rate is 77 percent."

When asked how much extra stress the homicide increase has put on the unit, Mason said, "I wouldn't say anything about extra stress, because this is just what we do."

But a former homicide detective who spent 17 years in the unit before his retirement said he's heard the strain has been tremendous.

"It would be daunting. You have so many coming in, but so few people working on them. You're just not able to give the attention to them that you should be able to. They're coming in too fast, you're spread too thin. A lot of times when they're coming in that fast, you're going to miss stuff," Bill Ashton said, remembering his time in the unit when homicide rates were up. "When they come in that fast, you get frustrated because you don't have enough time to work on them." It's not just Memphis and Chicago, either. Other large American cities are seeing jumps in homicide numbers. A New York Times story last year pointed to such increases in several cities, including Baltimore, Milwaukee, New Orleans, St. Louis and Washington, D.C.

"It's a nationwide trend," Weirich said. "For the latter part of 2015, we were all watching as major cities across the nation noticed their violent crime spiking. We ended 2015 looking good, and then lo and behold (came) Jan. 1, 2016, and all that good work is gone."

Ask those in law enforcement why the city has seen such a rise in killings, you'll get numerous answers. Some point to MPD's decreased complement of officers, but Weirich doesn't think that holds much truth.

"If extra police officers kept homicides down," she said, "that would've been an easy fix many years ago."

Others point to a milder winter than normal, with the thinking that warmer temperatures lead more people out of homes and into the streets. Some have blamed that for the Chicago spike as well.

Ashton called that bunk.

"That's an old wives' tale. They say the temperature's going to be 102 next week so we're going to have a lot of homicides," he said. "I used to watch and see if that was true, but I didn't see it."

In fact, Ashton wonders if today's social climate doesn't make us more prone to homicide. The advent of social media, the dissemination of opinions — and their ability to reach those who disagree — moves everyone just a little bit closer to eruption, Ashton believes.

"All across the country right now, people are meaner this year than they were two years ago. They are a lot quicker on the flashpoint," he said. "That will filter down to the local stuff, too. People watch it on the news, they look at all this social media stuff. An anger builds up in them and it doesn't take as much for them to go off."

Ashton added that he's even had to police himself more closely these days.

"I'm a nice, calm person but sometimes I just want to slap somebody at the stuff I see," he said. "It can take a person like me and turn them into an angry person."

But one thing most everyone can agree on is that, by their very nature, homicides are almost impossible to predict, let alone prevent.

Unlike, say, armed robberies in one part of town, or car thefts in another, homicides aren't usually patterns that can be plotted on a map, with resources then directed to that area. They are often crimes of passion, and just as often, spontaneous. Trying to stop homicides before they happen, the experts say, is like trying to catch rain with a net.

One of the city's most recent killings, and one of the more bewildering, happened on Interstate 240 last Monday night.

According to police, Tarrance Dixon, 21, and Robert Chaney, 21, got into a road-rage incident with Reginald Burke, 22. It was unclear what prompted the incident, but according to police, Dixon opened fire on Burke's 2006 Mustang. Burke died a few hours later, and both Chaney and Dixon have been charged with second-degree murder.

"They was throwing up gang signs to everybody they seen. My son drove off. They followed him and shot him down," Reginald Burke Sr. said. "(The bullet hit him) in the buttocks. It hit a major artery going to his heart. He bled to death."

Burke Sr. was no stranger to the streets, he said, and his arrest history shows charges for aggravated robbery as well as drug and weapons charges.

His son had no record, except for a speeding ticket, something Burke Sr. took particular pride in. His son had a good job at CarMax, he said, and was planning to return to school.

"I tried to raise my son the proper way so he didn't go through what I went through, in the streets," he said. "I mentored my son from the time I was locked up until the time I got out. My son moved in with me and I taught him everything that needed to be taught."

Now, all that work is gone and the father is left to mourn the son.

"Because some fools just rode up to him and shot the man down like it ain't nothing, like it's cool," he said. "It's something that I can't describe to you. It just hurts so bad."