click to enlarge Sam Allard / Scene
A memorial for Jordan Rodriguez.
In 2017, Cleveland saw 130 homicides, a decrease of three from 2016's total. Almost all of the deaths were the result of guns.
The year's final homicide, tallied early Sunday morning, was
the shooting death of a developmentally disabled 18-year-old in the city's Broadway-Slavic Village neighborhood.
Earlier in December, the remains of five-year-old Jordan Rodriguez were uncovered in the city's Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood. Jordan was also developmentally disabled. His mother Larissa Rodriguez is accused of killing him and disposing of the body.
The 133 homicides in 2016 represented the highest annual total since 2007, when there were 134 homicides. The murder count in both 2010 and 2011 was extremely low. After it fell from 98 in 2012 to 88 in 2013, there has been a steady upward trend.
Maybe 2017 will begin a downward trajectory. Here are the numbers from the past decade.
2007: 134
2008: 102
2009: 120
2010: 72
2011: 75
2012: 98
2013: 88
2014: 102
2015: 121
2016: 133
2017: 130
Cleveland.com has assembled a list of 10 notable homicides this year. Among them are the tragic deaths of 14-year-old Alianna DeFreeze, who was abducted from an RTA stop on her way to school in January; and of Robert Godwin Sr., the victim of a random shooting posted to Facebook on Easter Sunday.