WORCESTER ― While the city has seen 16 homicides so far in 2024, the most since at least 1986, Interim Police Chief Paul B. Saucier said the overall combined total of fatal and nonfatal shootings in the city is below last year’s number.
Worcester saw six homicides in 2023, compared to 16 this year. However, the city also had 32 nonfatal shootings with 37 nonfatal victims in 2023, compared to 16 nonfatal shootings with 19 nonfatal victims in this year, making the combined total of homicides and nonfatal shootings 38 for 2023, compared to 32 fatal and nonfatal shootings so far this year.
In fact, the last time the nonfatal shootings were this low was 2019, when there were 16 nonfatal shootings with 16 nonfatal shooting victims. That year also saw 13 homicides in the city.
“If you look at the nonfatal and fatal shootings for 2024, the amount of shootings are still lower,” Saucier said. “Our goal is to reduce the amount of shooting overall, both nonfatal and fatal.”
Saucier did acknowledge that several nonfatal shootings could have easily turned into homicides but didn’t.
In a statement, City Manager Eric D. Batista said violence of this nature is unacceptable and the city is always concerned whenever there’s an uptick in violence, particularly gun violence.
“These are troubling statistics that are not indicative of the safe city that Worcester is,” Batista said when asked about the 16 homicides. “Despite this recent uptick in fatal violence, nonfatal shootings have dramatically decreased and Worcester — without a doubt — remains one of the safest cities in the country.”Batista said through dedicated police work and partnerships with the Department of Health and Human Services and community partners, the city addresses violence in a “holistic manner” in an effort to prevent violent acts from happening in the first place.
While Saucier said the March 5 double homicide of Chasity Nuñez, 27, and her 11-year-old daughter, Zella, shot dead in a car parked on Englewood Avenue, is one of the worst cases he has seen in 30 years of police work, the interim chief pointed out that 13 out of 16 homicides in 2024 are considered by authorities to be solved.
The remaining homicides considered unsolved for 2024 are a 28-year-old man shot and killed inside a truck on Dorchester Street on Dec. 16, and a 31-year-old man and 58-year-old woman discovered shot to death on Nov. 21 in the Tatnuck Square Apartments on Brookside Avenue. No arrests have been made in either case.
Additionally a suspect, Lino Menjivar, 30, remains wanted in connection with the April 13 killing of Bob Nuah, 24, who was shot to death on Allendale Street. Menjivar is considered armed and dangerous.
Saucier urges anyone who has information on the unsolved homicides or on the whereabouts of Menjivar to send an anonymous text to 274637 TIPWPD, or to send an anonymous web-based message at worcesterma.gov/police. Calls can also be made to the Worcester police detective bureau at 508-799-8651.
Saucier said a majority of homicide victims in 2024 knew their killers and in some cases considered them friends.
“They’re acquaintances. Most of them know each other,” Saucier said. “So you’re going to have better access to somebody. You get in an argument with them. You know them, right? It’s not like you’re going out on the street doing a drive-by.”
Saucier also pointed out that a vast majority of the city’s gun violence is not committed by licensed gun owners.
“These guys are carrying illegal guns and they’re in a confrontation. They’re not hesitating,” Saucier said. “Nobody is really out there with legal guns killing people.”
Of the 16 homicides in 2024, Saucier said only a few could be considered gang violence. Five are believed to be cases of domestic violence that turned deadly.
In an effort to curb domestic violence, the Worcester Police Department receives federal funding in the form of a grant from the U.S. Justice Department’s Office on Violence Against Women.
With this funding, the Police Department participates on the Worcester County Domestic Violence High Risk Team to focus on repeat violent offenders. The police special crimes unit has a memorandum of understanding with the YWCA for high-risk victim advocates to assist in assisting survivors at each level of the criminal justice system. One of the programs includes a co-responding model in which law enforcement and high-risk domestic advocates go directly to victims where they are at, often to their homes or places of safety, for follow-up.
The Worcester Police Department has confiscated approximately 100 firearms this year, and the department’s crime gun intelligence unit, which started in April, confiscated 25 guns on its own. It also made 39 firearm-related arrests.
“If we didn’t take those 25 weapons off the street, who knows what would have happened,” Saucier said. “We’re seeing more and more machine guns, Glock switches —things that years ago you never saw.”
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester reports fewer shootings in 2024, despite jump in homicides