Hamilton Murders 2014: Update on Ernie Sitter

A suspect has been arrested in the Ward 4 murder of Ernie Sitter. According to the Spec, an Oshawa man Rodney Ryan, a 42 year old man was arrested.

After four murders relatively quickly in 2014, there's been no murders in Hamilton since February 28th. There were 13 murders in 2013, so the city is slightly behind last year's pace as of today. Here's a breakdown of the city's four murders.

Breakdown of Hamilton's First Four Murders of 2014

Breakdown of Hamilton 2014 Homicides to this date:

Date of Murder		Victim	Victim's Age	Cause of Death	City Ward	Suspect
January 1st, 2014		Marley Rowe	23	Shooting	3 (Barton and Sherman)	N/A
January 4th, 2014		Margaret Elizabeth Steer	56	Stabbing	2 (MacNab Street	Karen Flynn, 43
January 9th, 2014		Ernie Sitter	57	Blunt Force Trauma	4 (King Street East at Edgemont)	N/A
February 28th, 2014		Richard Doucette	28	Stabbing	2 (103 Barton St. E near Mary St.)	N/A

2014's Fourth Murder Victim in Hamilton, Richard Doucette

Continuing an anomaly in the trend of homicide rates in Hamilton in 2014, Hamilton recorded its fourth murder, Richard Doucette. The Spec is reporting that the murder was in an apartment in the Barton and Mary St area (Ward 2) and Doucette was stabbed along with another female.

Four murders in two months extrapolates to 24 murders in one year, which is considerably higher than any other in any recent year in Hamilton. The first victim was shooting victim Marley Rowe, the second Margaret Elizabeth Steer was stabbed and the third was Ernie Sitter who was reported to have died of blunt force trauma.

Hamilton Already Has Third Homicide Victim of 2014

Continuing a rather alarming trend, 57 year old Ernie Sitter has been confirmed by Hamilton police as the third homicide victim of 2014. Sitter was murdered in his King Street East apartment. All three murders so far in 2014 have been in the lower city. At this point the police haven't named any suspects.

Compared to previous years (including only seven for 2012) three in such a short time is an anomaly. I'm not sure when the last time the city had three murders in one month. What's also odd is the number of murders in the dead of winter. Homicides in Hamilton happen more often in the summer months.