Detroit homicide investigators say the city's slaying victims mirror those who are killed nationally.

They estimate about 60 percent of those killed in the Motor City are involved in the drug trade. They say 15 percent of Detroit homicides are domestic incidents, 15 percent are robbery-related, and the remaining 10 percent result from miscellaneous fights.

Aside from shooting deaths, those killed in Detroit are burned, dismembered, stabbed, choked and beaten.

The Free Press examined death records of homicides for 2002, 2003 and the first four months of this year from the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office and created a database to analyze the numbers.

Though the 1,025 deaths ruled as homicides encompass all of Wayne County, Detroit killings make up the lion's share.

The analysis shows 85 percent of homicide victims are black and 83 percent are male. Of those black men killed, 85 percent die of gunshot wounds. The average age of those shooting victims is 31.

It's no surprise to police that black males in their late 20s and early 30s are killed at the greatest rate in Detroit. The city's population is about 83-percent black.

Homicide investigators say many of these men are fully entrenched in the drug trade, are mid- to upper-level players and, by virtue of their standing, often are the target of jealous rivals itching to pick them off.

"By the mid- to late 30s, they may be getting past their violent stage, but they are not necessarily getting past their criminal stage," Detroit Police Homicide Lt. William Petersen said. "In fact, they're at the height of it."

National statistics complied by Northeastern University criminologist James Alan Fox show killers typically target someone older than them. The average age of a killer is 28; victims, on average, are 33.

BY NANCY A. YOUSSEF AND SUZETTE HACKNEY

back | to top | full article >>