Law enforcement in Pulaski County investigated 119 deaths as homicides in 2022, outpacing tolls set in previous years on the back of a record-setting death toll in Little Rock and a total for the areas patrolled by the county sheriff's office that was the highest in at least 22 years.
In the capital, police reported 81 homicide deaths by year's end, surpassing the previous record of 76 killings set in 1993, when gang violence plagued the city.
It represented a marked jump compared with the 65 deaths reported in the city in 2021, a total which was itself second only to the 1993 record. That represents about a 24% increase in homicides from 2021 to 2022.
The 10 homicides investigated by Pulaski County deputies last year was the largest yearly number since 1998, when the agency’s deputies investigated 13 deaths as homicides. In 2021, the sheriff’s office investigated eight homicides. Since 1990, the largest number of homicides investigated by the sheriff’s office in a year was 19 in 1994.
Police in North Little Rock reported 23 homicides in 2022, one of which involved an officer killing a man during a June shootout. That's the same total as the department reported last year but one less fatality than in 2020, which is the city's deadliest year on record since 1990, when 27 people were killed.
Additionally, police in Jacksonville investigated four homicides in 2022, while Sherwood police investigated one.
City leaders, and Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott in particular, have suggested the surge in Arkansas is part of a nationwide increase in crime, or at least an increase in homicides as violent crime overall is on the decline.
For example, Little Rock's Dec. 19 weekly crime data report -- the most recent available -- showed that violent crime in the city was down 8% compared with that date in 2021, even though homicides had risen 23% in the same time period and 59% over the average number set in the last five years.
A decrease in aggravated assaults -- the most numerous category of violent crime the city regularly tallies -- appeared to contribute to the decrease in violent crime in 2022, offsetting killings, rapes and robberies. There were 3,269 aggravated assaults reported in the city by Dec. 19, 2021, but just 2,895 reported by the same date in 2022, resulting in an 11% drop year-to-year.
Rape had increased 2% -- from 194 to 197 instances -- in the same period in Little Rock, while robbery was up 8%, from 388 incidences to 418, the report showed.
National trends seem to roughly reflect that while homicides have been on the rise since 2020, some other types of violent crime are declining.
The FBI's National Incident Based Reporting System showed a 1% decrease in violent crimes nationwide from 2020 to 2021 -- the most recent year available -- but murders and non-negligent manslaughters had gone up 4%.
In February, Scott began organizing weekly news conferences at Little Rock City Hall to keep news media and residents up-to-date with the latest crime statistics and efforts by police and the city to combat and prevent violent crime in the city.
Those news conferences were eventually phased out as the summer wore on, but frequently centered around the city's efforts to create social programs intended to curb crime, typically referred to as prevention, intervention and treatment programs.
In April, Scott created the HOPE Council to look into crime-prevention tactics, appointing 20 members that included a city director, activists, religious leaders, two judges and members of the police department, including the agency's full-time social worker. HOPE stands for Holistic Outreach and Prevention in Every neighborhood, Scott said.
On Nov. 29, the council presented its findings to the city's Board of Directors. The presentation called for more police staff -- especially specialists such as victim advocates and mental health professionals -- programs for residents that emphasize parenting skills, increased code enforcement to make housing in the city livable and the creation of "Opportunity Centers" that would serve as "one-stop shops" for additional education, job placement, conflict resolution, counseling and youth programs.
Scott and his staff intend to work to bring proposals based on the council's suggestions before the board in the coming months, the mayor said.
When it comes to policing, Little Rock officers made arrests in 44 of the 76 separate homicide incidents in 2022. Some incidents result in multiple deaths which are treated as a single investigation by police.
Another two investigations have been cleared by exception -- in one case because the primary suspect was killed in another shooting and in another because a prosecutor determined that the killing was justified.
Another seven cases were awaiting a "file review" from a prosecutor, department spokesman Mark Edwards said. On Friday, Edwards said that one of these seven cases had been fully reviewed, but he needed to get more information before he could say which case it was or what the outcome was.
That leaves 23 open homicide investigations from 2022 in Little Rock.
North Little Rock police had made arrests in 11 of their 20 homicide investigations, while another had been cleared by exception when a prosecutor declined to pursue the case. That left eight open investigations.
Pulaski County deputies had made arrests in six of their 10 investigations. One death that was initially regarded as a homicide -- the June 8 death of 68-year-old Terry Bailey -- has since been re-classified as an accidental death, sheriff's spokesman Lt. Cody Burk said.
Of the victims countywide, 87% were men -- 13 women were killed, and two victims were unborn children killed when their mother was shot. The average age of the deceased was 33.
The vast majority -- about 84% -- of the killings were shootings, with five reported as stabbings, six as vehicular killings and two from other causes. The cause of death was unknown in five of the homicides.
DECEMBER HOMICIDES
In the last month of 2022, law enforcement in Pulaski County investigated 10 deaths as homicides, putting the month on par with the year's average number of monthly slayings.
The least-deadly month of the year was January, when seven deaths were reported, and the monthly death toll peaked in April, when police investigated 17 killings.
Little Rock police on Dec. 6 investigated the first killing of the month when the body of Ja'Markeise Gage, 18, was found in his vehicle at the intersection of Chenal Parkway and Markham Street. However, police think the shots were fired in the parking lot near 11400 W. Markham St.
No suspect had been named in the slaying by Friday.
On Dec. 10, Little Rock officers responding to a shots-fired call near 2900 S. Battery St. found Valandus Jackson, 28, shot and slumped at the wheel of a vehicle. The other passengers were not hurt, but Jackson died at an area hospital on Dec. 23.
Police had yet to identify a suspect in the killing Friday.
Little Rock officers on Dec. 13 found Toddray Eskew, 44, fatally shot at 4821 S. University Ave.
No suspect had been identified in Eskew's killing by Friday.
The Arkansas State Police late on Dec. 17 alerted police in Little Rock that they had found Johnny Alexander, 18, dead in Lonoke County. Officers were working a Little Rock shooting at 12312 Chenal Parkway and determined that Alexander had been fatally shot in that incident before fleeing to where his body was found.
The next day, officers arrested Joshua Shorty, 25, who is charged with first-degree murder in Alexander's killing. A police report lists Shorty as an acquaintance of Alexander's.
Shorty, who pleaded innocent on Dec. 19, was being held Friday in the Pulaski County jail on a $1 million bond, jail and court records showed.
Little Rock officers responding to a shots-fired call on Dec. 18 found 17-year-old Kenneth Perkins shot near 2 Torey Pines Drive.
A woman told police some people tried to rob her with a gun, so she fired several shots. However, investigators arrested Daryl Jones, 18, and Tamarion Jones, 15, in Perkins' death, and the two were charged with capital murder and aggravated robbery. They were being held Friday in the Pulaski County jail without bond after pleading innocent, court records show.
North Little Rock police on Dec. 19 investigated the double homicide of Devon Hill, 19, and Brayden Robinson, 18. The two were found shot in a vehicle at 822 E. 16th St., police said.
No suspect had been named Friday in the killings.
Also on Dec. 19, Jacksonville police investigated a vehicle crash that killed Billie Barnard, 39, a motorcyclist. Officers arrested Kevin Karosich, 27, who they said smelled strongly of intoxicants after the crash.
Karosich is charged with felony negligent homicide while operating a vehicle intoxicated and a misdemeanor driving while intoxicated count. He pleaded innocent on Dec. 21, court records showed, and he did not appear in the Pulaski County jail's online inmate roster late Friday.
Little Rock police on Dec. 26 investigated the shooting death of Noel Marks, 41, who was found dead near 6200 Colonel Glenn Road, the address of the Big Country Chateau apartment complex.
Two other homicides were reported at the apartments in 2022.
Police on Thursday identified 15-year-old Tyler Bland as a suspect in Marks' killing, although Bland was still at large late Friday.
On Friday, Pulaski County deputies responding to a report of a shooting arrived at 3525 Tony Road, where they found Frank Lloyd, 55, who had been shot several times. Lloyd was taken to an area hospital and died of his wounds later in the day.
Before dying, Lloyd reportedly told deputies that his neighbor, 18-year-old Makel Lowery, shot him following an argument. Detectives questioned Lowery, who they said told them he got into an argument with Lloyd and then came back with a gun.
Deputies arrested Lowery and charged him with capital murder. He was being held in the Pulaski County jail late Friday.
CORRECTION: The 10 homicides investigated by Pulaski County deputies last year was the largest yearly number since 1998, when the agency’s deputies investigated 13 deaths as homicides. In 2021, the sheriff’s office investigated eight homicides. Since 1990, the largest number of homicides investigated by the sheriff’s office in a year was 19 in 1994. An earlier version of this article incorrectly specified the period for which crime statistics were available and in one instance misstated the number of homicides investigated by the sheriff’s office in 2022.