Hamilton Finishes With Six Homicides In 2015, 1.35 Per 100,000 Inhabitants (Toronto 2.10)

Hamilton ends up finishing with six murders in 2015, down one from 2014. Note that is the city, not the census area. Using the somewhat out of date Statscan population of 520K from 2011, that's a murder rate of 1.15 per 100,000 inhabitants. To contrast with Toronto which had 55 murders in 2015, or a murder rate of 2.10 per 100,000 (based over the Statscan 2011 population number of 2,615K). Four murders were in the lower city. None on the Mountain, one each in Ancaster and Waterdown. You can find a list of the seven 2014 murders in Hamilton here.

Date of Murder		Victim	Victim's Age	Cause of Death	City Ward	Suspect
January 8th, 2015		Nathan Miller	20	Shooting	3 (28 Madison Avenue)	Male 15, Jemaal Wilson, 20, Shamoiey Akindejoye 21
March 25th, 2015		Renee Neganiwina	26	Fire?	4 (561 Kenilworth Avenue)	Joseph Snelgrove, 38
May 15th, 2015		William McConville	40	Beating	2 (Stinson and Victoria)	Gordon Eugene O'Hara, 33, and Joshua Vernon O'Hara, 27
August 12th, 2015		Shariek Douse	18	Shooting	2 (MacNab Street North and Simcoe Street)	N/A
August 13th?, 2015		Lori Constable	55	Asphyxiation	15 (Riley Street, Waterdown)	Wayne Constable, 55 (husband, deceased, murder suicide
December 21st, 2015		Carmon Ward	60	Shooting	12 (Miller Drive, Ancaster)	N/A

Hamilton's Sixth Homicide, Carmon Ward

Carmon Ward was killed during a home invasion on December 21st in Ancaster. Ward, was a 60 year old male and killed by a gunshot wound to the chest. No suspect names have been released. The house was on Miller Drive, which is in Ward 12 and is Ancaster's first murder of the year. Ward is the third shooting victim out of six homicides in Hamilton this year.

Breakdown of Hamilton's Five Murders in 2015, Lori Constable Added

Breakdown of Hamilton 2015 homicides to this date with the fifth murder, Shariek Douse. All murders have been in the lower city apart from the latest one in Waterdown. There have been three male victims and two female victims. All suspects are males. Of the five killings, two are shootings. You can find a list of the seven 2014 murders in Hamilton here.

Date of Murder		Victim	Victim's Age	Cause of Death	City Ward	Suspect
January 8th, 2015		Nathan Miller	20	Shooting	3 (28 Madison Avenue)	Male 15, Jemaal Wilson, 20, Shamoiey Akindejoye 21
March 25th, 2015		Renee Neganiwina	26	Fire?	4 (561 Kenilworth Avenue)	Joseph Snelgrove, 38
May 15th, 2015		William McConville	40	Beating	2 (Stinson and Victoria)	Gordon Eugene O'Hara, 33, and Joshua Vernon O'Hara, 27
August 12th, 2015		Shariek Douse	18	Shooting	2 (MacNab Street North and Simcoe Street)	N/A
August 13th?, 2015		Lori Constable	55	Asphyxiation	15 (Riley Street, Waterdwon)	Wayne Constable, 55 (husband, deceased, murder suicide

Hamiltons's Fifth Homicide of 2015, Lori Constable 55

Hamilton's fifth murder of 2015 took place in August sometime around the 12th. Originally the deaths of Constable and her husband were a mystery, however according to this Spectator article, Lori Constable was smothered by her husband Wayne, also 55, at their home on Riley Street in Waterdown. This is the first murder outside of the inner city wards of Hamilton in 2015.

Breakdown of Hamilton's Four Murders, Shariek Douse Added

Breakdown of Hamilton 2015 homicides to this date with the fourth murder, Shariek Douse. All murders have been in the lower city. Three. male victims and one female victim. All suspects are males. Of the four killings, two are shootings.

Date of Murder		Victim	Victim's Age	Cause of Death	City Ward	Suspect
January 8th, 2015		Nathan Miller	20	Shooting	3 (28 Madison Avenue)	Male 15, Jemaal Wilson, 20, Shamoiey Akindejoye 21
March 25th, 2015		Renee Neganiwina	26	Fire?	4 (561 Kenilworth Avenue)	Joseph Snelgrove, 38
May 15th, 2015		William McConville	40	Beating	2 (Stinson and Victoria)	Gordon Eugene O'Hara, 33, and Joshua Vernon O'Hara, 27
August 12th, 2015		Shariek Douse	18	Shooting	2 (MacNab Street North and Simcoe Street)	N/A

Fourth Homicide in Hamilton in 2015, Shariek Douse 18, First Murder Since May 15th

Hamilton has had its fourth murder of 2015, with Shariek Douse (18) being shot last night in Ward one in the vicinity of MacNab Street North and Simcoe Street. No suspects have been named as of yet.

The last murder in Hamilton was William McConville who was beat to death on May 15th. Arrests have been made for all three previous murders in Hamilton.

Hamilton Has First Murder of 2015

After a rather slow period for Hamilton homicide, the Spec is reporting on the first murder in Hamilton of 2015. An unamed as of yet male victim on Madison avenue close to Cannon and Sanford.

Hamilton had seven murders in 2014 and only one of them involved a gun.

2014 Hamilton Homicide Roundup: Seven Murders, Over Half of Killings By Stabbing

The year 2014 is done and it is time to go over the murders in Hamilton. I've been keeping track of them throughout the year and this year we ended up with seven murders, which is a large decrease from the 13 last year (please note this is in the city of Hamilton alone, not the census area). Things started off quickly, with three homicide in the first nine days and then only four more the rest of the year. In fact there were five in the first two months of 2014, so Hamilton seems to be a city of cold weather murders.

Assuming a population for the city of 520K, that works out to a relatively low 1.35 murders per 100,000. I believe that's lower than Toronto for 2014, but I'll have to check.

In terms of where the murders happened, all but one occurred in the lower city; the lone other murder was on the Mountain in Ward 8. In fact, wards 2, 3 and 4 all had two murders.

For causes of death, stabbing was by far the most common cause of death, with four out of the seven murders (time for a knife registry?). Only one murder involved a shooting.

Ages of the victims ranged from 14 year old Jessie Clark to 82 year old Mary Fletcher. Ages of the accused ranged from 18 to 57.

Two murders are currently unsolved (or more correctly no arrests), that of Marley Rowe and that of Richard Doucette.

Here's a table with a breakdown on the murders:

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)	Rodney Ryan, 42
February 23rd, 2014		Mary Fletcher	82	Neglect	8 (Rymal Rd W, East of Garth)	William Fletcher, 57
February 28th, 2014		Richard Doucette	28	Stabbing	2 (103 Barton St. E near Mary St.)	N/A
August 18th, 2014		Jesse Clark	14	Stabbing	3 (Lincoln Ave and Gordon St)	Brodie Nicholls, 18
November 6th, 2014		Tony Robles	66	Stabbing	4 (33 Morley St. )	Jonathan Robles, 35

2013 Canadian Homicide Data is Out, Hamilton Had 15 Murders in 2013

Statscan has released data on murder in Canada in 2013 and the various Canadian newspapers have jumped all over it. The Globe has a good article here.

I wasn't sure of the exact number of murders last year in Hamilton, but apparently it is 15 (I had thought it was 13). That is a murder rate of 2.04 per 100,000 inhabitants. Interestingly that works out to a population of approximately 735,000 which is significantly higher than Hamilton's population. So that probably is the census area and includes Burlington and Grimsby but I could be wrong. So it could well be that Hamilton itself has had 13 murders in 2013, which would work out to a murder rate of 2.5 per 100,000 if we use a Hamilton only population of 520,000. Which isn't so great.

However Hamilton this year is doing a lot better on the killing front, with only 7 murders so far in 2014 with less than a month to do. If Hamilton gets through the year with only 7 that would work out to a rate per 100,000 of only 1.35 (using a population of 520,000) which would be considerably better. For 2013 Hamilton had the fifth most murders per capita, but a rate of 1.35 would move us well down the list.

Here's the murders for each city followed by the rate per 100,000 for all the cities Statscan tracks:

Regina 9 3.85
Winnipeg 26 3.24
Thunder Bay 3 2.46
Edmonton 27 2.09
Hamilton 15 2.04
London 9 1.8
Calgary 24 1.75
Vancouver 42 1.72
Abbotsford-Mission 3 1.69
Saskatoon 5 1.67
Kelowana 3 1.62
Gatineau 5 1.55
KW Cambridge 8 1.5
St John’s 3 1.62
Halifax 6 1.47
Barrie 3 1.44
Saint John 2 1.37
St Catharines-Niagara 6 1.35
Toronto 79 1.34
Montreal 43 1.68
Oshawa 4 0.97
Ottawa 9 0.92
Brantford 1 0.7
Trois-Rivieres 1 0.65
Kingston 1 0.61
Greater Sudbury 1 0.61
Windsor 2 0.61
Quebec 3 0.38
Victoria 1 0.28
Moncton 0
Saguenay 0
Sherbrook 0
Perterborough 0
Guelph 0

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.