ALBUQUERQUE – Albuquerque has set a record for the most homicides in one year at 115 and counting, according to authorities.
The Albuquerque Journal reported the record was previously set in 2021 with 117 homicides by year’s end around the city, but at least three of those have since been ruled self-defense shootings or otherwise.
Before that, the highest total was 81 homicides in 2019.
There were 69 people killed in Albuquerque from May through September this year, the lowest monthly total in that stretch being the 10 homicides in July.
Outside of the Albuquerque city limits, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office has recorded 19 homicides in 2022. That is the agency’s highest total in recent memory, according to the Journal.
Before 2022, the county had fluctuated between 11 homicides in 2021 and five homicides in 2017.
So far this year, the Journal said there have been seven double homicides in Albuquerque compared with three double murders and one triple killing in 2021.
Ten of those killed and seven of those arrested in 2022 cases were under age 17 compared with four killed and three arrested in 2021 – numbers similar to previous years, according to the newspaper.
