Investigators still do not know who killed Arthur Langley. The 62-year-old was found in San Diego just before midnight last June in his car in the middle of 45th Street near Southcrest Park. He was shot.
Four hours later, police knocked on his sister’s door.
“It’s absolutely devastating,” said Kathleen Medina. “I just do not know who did it or why.”
Langley’s undisclosed shooting came in a year when, while COVID was taking people home under tremendous stress, homicides in the San Diego area jumped 35 percent.
Two years ago, 85 people were killed in the area as a result of the killings, according to an analysis of data collected by local Union-Tribune law enforcement agencies. 115 murders were registered last year.
The number of murders in Chula Vista has more than tripled, reaching 10 out of three murders. None of the “National City” killings became four. In the city of San Diego, the number of 56 homicides registered last year increased by more than 10%.
The Union-Tribune annually collects data on homicides in the region, an overview of possible trends, such as a sense of who the victims were and how they died.
In the San Diego area last year, guns were by far the most commonly used weapon in homicides, involving nearly three out of every five homicides. In San Diego, two out of every three murders involved weapons.
San Diego police say they are finding far more weapons, including in the hands of criminals, more subtle “ghost weapons” that are assembled from parts that sometimes come in pre-packaged sets. They are often unregistered and irreversible.
Last year, San Diego, like the rest of the country, struggled with rising gun violence. Gun cases have disappeared, and more people are calling 911 to report hearing gunfire. Twice last year, ShotSpotter alarms, a network of audio sensors that said they were detecting weapons, prompted San Diego police to detect scenes of deadly shooting that no one had called to report.
Gun deaths account for 55 to 57 percent of homicides in the region each year since 2018. A year earlier, half of all murders were related to weapons. In 2016, it was 40 percent.
The latest increase in numbers
San Diego, the eighth largest city in the United States, is not alone in its homicide. Nationwide, several large cities have recorded huge flights of murders in 2019-2020.
Looking exclusively at homicides, San Diego is one of the 10 safest American cities with a homicide rate of 3.9 homicides per 10,000 inhabitants. (Two years ago it was 2.5 per 100,000).
San Antonio, which had more than 100,000 inhabitants than San Diego, had a ratio of 8.3. Last year, 128 homicides were designated as 56 homicides in San Diego. Dallas, a slightly smaller population, had 251 homicides. The ratio was 18.7 deaths per 100,000 population.
Despite recent activity, violent crime has generally declined nationally and locally for decades. Thirty years ago, the San Diego area peaked at a record 278 homicides, and the city 167,
In 2010, San Diego had 29 homicides, the lowest level since 1968. The following years brought fluctuations, but San Diego recorded 34 homicides in 2017 and 35 the following year.
In 2019, 50 murders were registered in the city. Ten of those deaths occurred in just three incidents.
Among them were the mother of Paradise Hills and her four young sons, all of whom were shot by the boys’ father, who then turned his shotgun on himself. A fire broke out in Logan Hayes’ house, as a result of which the couple and one of their daughters died. Fire, which is accused of deliberately starting by one of the couple’s sons. And a couple of Torry Highlands were shot and killed by their son, who died in an undercurrent on the University Highway.
There was only one incident in San Diego last year, with many deaths. Double murder, deaths of the boy’s mother and grandmother. This means that in 2020, there were 51 separate homicides.
The data collected by The San Diego Union-Tribune includes incidents that occurred in previous years but were not designated as homicides until recently. Last year, four San Diego police cases fell into that category, including three that were relatively recent. The fourth was the April death of a San Diego police officer who went to work in 2003 when he was shot and paralyzed.
“Why” remains elusive
Police can not say why the numbers are rising.
“I do not know if I have a reason,” said Eula Tunberg, Chula Vista Police Chief. “I think we have to take into account that COVID played a role, as murders and violent crimes were on the rise.”
“Many of these need to be explored by researchers.”
Tunberg said he found that murders were often crimes of passion, “spontaneous events of emotion that are difficult to predict.”
“Sometimes people do not think about their actions, they just react,” he said.
Lt. Tom Saver, who heads the county sheriff’s department for homicide, says the killing is unique and often personal. Usually in any crime there are “various reasons: motives”. “It’s hard to pinpoint one,” he said.
The sheriff’s office has contracted law enforcement from Vista to Santiago to Imperial Beach, as well as to several cities in unrelated areas. The number of homicides investigated rose from 18 to 25, an increase of almost 39 percent.
Almost a quarter of last year’s homicides were stabbings. Blunt force, generally beating a person to death, occurred about 8% of the time. Two people were strangled.
There were five suicides in the county last year, according to law enforcement. In 2019, 11.
Four out of every five murders in the region last year were male. Six of the ten victims were Ss or Latin Americans. More than two-thirds of the victims were between the ages of 18 and 39.
A quarter of all homicides in the county last year went unreported, but that does not mean investigators have no suspects. They just might not be enough to make the arrest.
Sometimes the police will not say what could motivate the murder. Sometimes they say they do not know.
In recent years, San Diego has seen a spike in gang killings. A few years ago, the number of suspected gang deaths in the city was two. It was 11 last year. A year earlier, 12 were about 20 percent of the city’s homicides.
Focus on ending gun violence
Earlier this year, the city launched a pilot program to crack down on growing gang violence. Match “No shots“Awareness-raising support services for gang members are called for. It starts with the gang members agreeing to a ceasefire, creating accountability, and deploying the services they need. The focus is on ending gun violence.
“We are in a state of emergency when it comes to gun violence; we must treat it like an epidemic,” said Bishop Cornelius Bowser, who is working to prevent the violence of the group. He said the program was initiated in San Diego.
He spoke in support of the US Alliance, but said that maintaining some independence was not the answer to any question of whether or not the victim was still in hospital. In all respects, he said, COVID-19 played a detrimental role.
“The violence was already on the rise, then the epidemic came, it opened the top and caused it to escalate,” he said.
Bowser said that there are many weapons in the streets. “You will be surprised at the amount of money,” he said, including the ghost weapons.
San Diego police spokesman Sean Takeucci said the police investigation into the shooting had increased since the beginning of the year, with calls from people reporting gunfire being 70 percent full. In the first two months of 2020, 361 people picked up the phone to do so. The same months of this year. 617 calls.
The number of criminals arrested for possession of a gun in San Diego has increased from 75% in 2019-2020. According to state law, criminals are prohibited from possessing weapons or ammunition.
Last year, San Diego police seized 210 ghost weapons, nearly tripling what they found last year. And by the first week of April, San Diego police had seized 111 ghost weapons, more than half of last year’s collection.
“My brother did not deserve it”
Police are still investigating Langley’s death, and his sister continues to face it. He was the child of a family, less than 11 years old.
Medina says she was once a certified nurse assistant, caring for her mother until her death. After that, Langley moved to Medina.
He mostly stayed at home watching cowboy movies, he said. And he loved to fish. On the night of his death, he was spending time with another sister. He never made it home.
“He was not the person to bother anyone,” Medina said. “My brother did not deserve it.”