Akron murders, homicide rate remained high in 2022; grant program aims to reduce deaths

A three-month respite from murders in Akron during late 2021 did not foreshadow reduced violence across the city in 2022 as cases rose slightly and remained above pre-pandemic levels.

Last year's official toll of 45 murders is up from the 2021 count of 42, which followed the city's worst year in 2020 when 50 murders were recorded. Prior to the pandemic, there were 33 murders in 2019 and 32 in 2018, according to Akron police.

Police report solving about half of all murders in the past two years, and three fourths of those committed in 2020.

"It's a war zone. It's a blood bath right now," said the Rev. Stephen Muhammad, a long-time community activist. "The reason why they're spiraling now is because once your friend is killed and then is bragged about on social media, then the retaliation starts," he said.

He called the killings "another brand of suicide."

"All of these young people know each other, some are family members. Most of these killings are from people who, well, they know each other quite well," he said. "The concern here is that when you have young men who are not logical in their reasoning, they're acting on emotion, they're acting on severe depression."

Although the city started giving $1.6 million to 15 organizations to fight violence last year, officials and other community leaders say it will take time to see results. The city has set aside about $10 million of its $145 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money for violence prevention, with about $7.5 million for the grant program.

A third round of recipients announced Thursday will receive $1.5 million, which along with renewals for prior recipients totals $4.4 million awarded through the program.

The program was approved by council following Mayor Dan Horrigan's 2021 announcement of a Five-Point Framework for Community Violence Reduction.

When the first round of funding was announced last March, Horrigan's Deputy Chief of Staff Tamiyka Rose said the money is intended for "grass roots" organizations, adding the mayor wants to ensure "organizations that are already doing a lot of good work in the community and typically don't get funding from our normal foundations were given a shot so they could grow.”

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Guns involved in 90% of murders in Akron

The first murders since Oct. 12, 2021, took place in mid-January last year, starting with the deaths of Tyrique Lee Shields, 24, in University Park, and Donovan A. Clay, 21, in East Akron. Both young Black men were shot in the chest. Both cases remain unsolved.

According to the Akron Police Department's count, more than half of the city's 45 murder victims last year were Black males age 15 to 40, and 75% of victims were Black people, although only a third of the city's population is African American.

As in previous years, around 90% of all killings were shooting deaths.

There were six Black female victims, including girls ages 1 and 4. The others include a 20-year-old, two 21-year-olds and a 26-year-old. One of the 21-year-olds was pregnant.

Six white men and five white women were also killed.

Akron City Councilman Russ Neal represents West Akron's Ward 4, which saw 10 shooting deaths last year.

He said the constant killings should be cause for urgent action.

"That's the major problem right there — that we feel that it's not unusual," Neal said. "That's why we've been slow to move on this, because of those who are being murdered. Can you imagine that many white people getting murdered like that?"

He said the death of young Black men is common to many major U.S. cities.

"But since we live here and we have control over what takes place here, we should be addressing it with a greater sense of urgency, and we're not."

Akron NAACP President Judi Hill said the prevalence of guns is a big "piece of the puzzle," but said other factors are also involved.

"You don't have to have a license, you don't need to have a permit, you don't even need to go through any classes ... I also think that our value systems have changed."

She said the major influences on people's lives were different years ago.

"There wasn't social media. Socially, the influence is now more outside and not internal from the family," she said. "And the other thing, let's face it, is our parental age is young − they're very young. So, we have grandmothers who are the age of our mothers, right? And, so, that parenting model is different."

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Akron's homicide rate higher than Columbus, Toledo

Police do not count all violent deaths as murders, but they are counted as homicides.

Homicides are deaths that include instances where someone acts in self-defense, or when the perpetrator is charged with a lesser crime, such as manslaughter. Generally speaking, murder is the unlawful, intentional taking of a life.

Last year's final homicide count in Akron was 49, putting its rate at just under 26 per 100,000 residents, higher than Columbus and Toledo, but lower than Cleveland's rate of 42 per 100,000.

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If Akron's homicide rate were equivalent to that of Columbus, there would have been only 28 deaths in the city. Columbus, with 900,000 residents, had a homicide rate of 15.4 per 100,000. However, last year's count in the state capital is a 32% drop since 2021.

Akron's murder count includes the death of 17-year-old Ethan Liming although three men, aged 19, 20 and 21 were charged with lesser offenses.

The police shooting deaths of 25-year-old Jayland Walker last June and 21-year-old Lawrence Rodgers, are not included in the murder count with both cases still under investigation, said Lt. Michael Miller, Akron Police Department Public Information Officer.

Miller said two other men's homicides are also not listed as murders: a February shooting that has been judged as self defense and an August shooting that is presumed to be self-defense and remains pending a grand jury hearing.

Anti-violence initiative just getting started in Akron

Young Black men are one target of Akron's Violence Prevention Community Grant Program, said Denico Buckley-Knight, youth and community opportunity director, who oversees the program that has awarded $4.4 million thus far.

He said it will take some time to see results, but added more than 4,500 people have been reached through the program last year.

"The task that I'm working on next is the implementation of a strategic plan around violence, intervention and prevention," he said. "Around April we'll finalize that strategic planning to really have something that the community is aware of, and that we can move forward with."

He said part of the strategic plan will result from work with community leaders to figure out how to connect to high-risk individuals, building on the city's 2019 strategic plan for youth violence prevention.

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He said special efforts are needed to reach young people who have either been incarcerated or involved with people committing crimes.

"To capture and connect to that group, you have to have a unique approach to that, and one of the things that I want to do is identify some organizations and individuals in the community who would be interested in creating something that's unique to address that 10% that's doing, you know, 80% of the crime," he said.

Muhammad refers to criminologist David Kennedy, a professor of criminal justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City and the director of the National Network for Safe Communities at John Jay. 

“What his studies and what his efforts found was that 73% of the behaviors that were unpleasant or unwanted or even deadly were being moved by only 5% of the population ...

"It's almost impossible to do anything about it unless you can get those major persons, the major players to a table. These persons want to stay under the radar. The persons who are the triggered persons, the persons who are committing the behaviors."

Shootings, deaths linger over Akron neighborhoods

The loss of life doesn't just affect victims or their families, but also entire neighborhoods, said the Rev. Charles Myricks Jr., senior pastor at East Akron's Arlington Church of God.

"We had someone killed around the block just recently," he said in early November while discussing a gun buy back program scheduled for Dec. 3.

The Lovers Lane convenience store homicide in September took place just a few blocks away from his East Akron church.

"It causes families to kind of retreat indoors more," Myrick said. "It doesn't happen every day, but the loss of life covers a lot of middle space in terms of occupying people's thoughts."

There have been five other shooting deaths within blocks of his church this year. They were all Black men, and their killings are all unsolved.

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Young men being 'mean and tough'

Defense attorney Eddie Sipplen said he's represented "hundreds, if not thousands" of young Black men over more than 20 years in Akron courts, from relatively minor crimes to murders. He says the violence among young men is "situational."

Last year, Sipplen defended Terrian Wray, a Black man in his early 20s who was sentenced to life in prison in June for murdering 20-year-old Akron resident Dee’Arius Reese in 2020. Sipplen has also represented one of the defendants in the Liming case, among defendants in other high-profile cases.

“Each time I come across one of these young men, I just let them know that, you know, there's a different way, there's a better option no matter how bleak it seems, your life has value," Sipplen said.

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He said that young men who don't feel their lives have value and meaning will be less inclined to respect others.

"They're taught that you gotta be hard, you gotta be tough, because these streets are mean and tough," he added.

“Nobody is totally 100% bad … but these kids, like I said, they're like two bulls. Both of 'em want to be the alpha male, and what they don't understand is how to resolve and still maintain face and dignity.” 

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Rebuilding Akron's neighborhoods a priority

The Rev. Greg Harrison, a retired Akron police officer and pastor of Antioch Baptist Church, said he has experienced loss himself, when his godson was killed in 2013.

"He was killed at Lovers Lane and Arlington. So, he was shot by a 15-year-old and four people were actually convicted. They were from an age range from 15 to 26," he said.

"When you talk about young Black men being not only perpetrators, but being victims, we have to look at what we have not done previous to this time," he said. "Those young men, be they 15 or 20, what was available for them when they were five and 10? What resources, what did they have access to? What was their neighborhood like? What environment did they grow up in?"

He said the city has neglected some neighborhoods and residents are now seeing the effects.

"If you look at the neighborhoods that have suffered, if you look at the neighborhoods where the schools have been closed, you look at neighborhoods where they have the most busing at, those are the neighborhoods that you have the most violence," he said. "You can map that with the neighborhoods who have the least amount of health care, the least access to health care, the least access to fresh food − you cannot separate the fact that the most violent neighborhoods are the neighborhoods that have the least amount of resources."

He said the city needs to focus on quality of life issues, "because right now everything that's good that happens in this city happens outside of their neighborhoods."

He predicted there will be no progress in efforts to combat violence for the next several years.

"What we do today in 2022, we probably won't see the positive effects for two to three years, if we started today," he said. "So, there is no answer to this that is going to reduce it next year, or the year after. Hopefully by 2026, 2027, the things that we are doing today will make that impact."

Akron continues recruiting anti-violence groups

Buckley-Knight said the city is reaching out to fund and support more organizations for funding through the violence prevention program, particularly the 80-or-so groups that had been part of the city's 2019 plan to identify strategies to reduce violence in the community.

Thanks to the ARPA money, he said, "I think we have the ability to bring those organizations who were a part of that planning process in 2019 to the table, and then we're also able to add some additional organizations who weren't in that conversation in 2019."

He said the city is fortunate to be able to be able to fund organizations in a unique solution to not only address violence, but to also "provide an opportunity for our youth, our young adults and our communities."

"There is opportunity for everyone to continue to work more collectively and strategically to be able to really improve our community."

Eric Marotta can be reached at emarotta@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @MarottaEric.