Pittsburgh homicides tick upward after lowest level in 20 years

Homicides in Pittsburgh increased in 2020 a year after dropping to the lowest level in two decades, data from the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office shows.

Across the city, 51 people – nine women and 41 men – were killed by others over the course of the year. Four victims were white and one man was Hispanic. Forty-six victims were Black. Nine were teenagers or younger.

In 2019, Pittsburgh police and the county medical examiner reported 37 homicides, down 29% from 2018. It was the lowest number of homicides in the city since 1998, when 37 people were killed, authorities said.

The citywide total had been decreasing since a spike in 2014, a year that saw 70 homicides – nearly twice as many as the year prior. The 51 reported homicides in 2020 represent a 27% increase over the previous year.

November saw the highest number of homicides: eight.

In the rest of Allegheny County, the medical examiner’s office recorded 56 homicides, a slight drop from the 59 recorded in 2019. Ten were women, and 10 were teenagers or younger.