The number of Denver homicides in the first three months of this year fell sharply compared with the same period last year, city officials said Friday.
Eight homicides have been reported so far during the first quarter, according to the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner. That compares with 14 in the first quarter of 2013, representing a 43 percent drop.
Last year was the highest first-quarter total dating to 2009.
The lowest number of first-quarter homicides in the past five years was six, which was in 2009.
The number of homicides typically rises in summer months and during the winter holidays.
“Homicides are difficult to predict,” said Steve Warneke, a Denver Police Department spokesman. “It’s difficult to say, from year to year, what will precipitate a rise or fall.”
Sometimes a local anomaly — such as the Aurora theater shootings — could spike numbers, but no such event has happened in Denver in recent years.
Recent numbers are a far cry from the 1990s, which included Denver’s so-called “Summer of Violence” in 1993, when 74 homicides were recorded in the city.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822, knicholson@denverpost.com or twitter.com/kierannicholson
Denver homicides
The number of homicides in Denver over the past five years are:
2009: 49 total; six in first quarter
2010: 41 total; eight in first quarter
2011: 49 total; nine in first quarter
2012: 42 total; 10 in first quarter
2013: 48 total; 14 in first quarter
