Despite some recent high-profile shootings, police in Charlotte are reporting a drop in homicides in the first six months of 2023.
As of Monday, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police reported 47 homicides in 2023. That's down 15% from this time last year, and down 4% from 2021.
It's part of a national decline in murders. Last month, a crime analyst in New Orleans found murders dropped 12% across more than 90 large cities through June.
Murder rates often rise and fall from year to year, and it can be hard to pinpoint an exact reason.
Larry Mims with Charlotte's Youth Advocate Program, which runs Alternatives to Violence (ATV), says he thinks locally, more people are connecting with programs like ATV, which was founded in August 2021.
The "violence interrupters" program deploys trained community members to make connections and resolve conflicts in the Beatties Ford Road corridor without involving police.
"The city itself has put more boots on the ground," Mims said. "When you start to involve everybody in the community, everybody gets involved, and everybody works toward a common goal, and I think that's what you're starting to see happen."
Still, summer months can be among the deadliest for shootings. Two people were killed over the weekend in the University City area, and police said a 19-year-old died on Monday from a shooting over the weekend as well.
Mims and other advocates said they hope the downward trend will continue.
"You can't stop everything, so at the end of the day, we're just going to try to do what we can do," said Dimitros Jordan, a violence interrupter with the ATV program. "Here and there, we might see some violence. If not, then we did a good job."
Juan Hall, a program outreach worker, said he hoped to see the kids and teens the program had worked with go on to play professional sports or graduate with college degrees.
"I've learned it's not how you live, it's what you leave behind when you pass," he said.
Another violence interrupter, Donnell Gardner, said his biggest hope "is getting more people involved and building that village ... I think the value and respect of life will be built among those relationships."
