Mayor says April spike in homicides prompts stepped-up interventions and violence-interruption outreach

Mayor (speaker 2) told the City Council that while citywide firearm homicides were flat through March, April registered seven homicides — "by far the worst month we've had in the last 2 and a half years" — raising the year-to-date total to 18 and prompting urgent follow-up from administration and council.

The mayor said place-based strategies in the city’s place-network investigation sites continue to produce year-over-year reductions, but the April spike requires stepped-up interventions. "We see the difference here: we had 7 homicides in the month of April alone," he said, and described immediate outreach by the Office of Neighborhood Safety and violence-interruption teams to affected families and communities.

Council members asked whether the response includes cross-departmental supports for families and children affected by shootings. The mayor described an interagency approach coordinated by the Office of Neighborhood Safety and cited work by Doctor Ben Sanders’s team and partners who provide immediate outreach, stabilization services and efforts to prevent retaliation: "If your family was a victim of violence, how do we make sure you don't now seek revenge on another family that they see as being involved?" he said.

Nelson Watson (speaker 7) urged ongoing community meetings and announced a Saturday convening at Clayton Early Learning that will include state and local officials to discuss supports for youth and families. The mayor said the administration will provide staff and resources to those events.

The mayor said prevention also includes youth employment and after-school programming to provide positive alternatives during summer months: the city is offering summer jobs with retention bonuses and targeted subsidies for youth from highest-risk environments.

Councilmembers closed the discussion by requesting additional data on the geographic distribution of incidents and more detail on how the city attributes homicide locations; the mayor clarified that homicides are attributed to the location of the incident (not the hospital where a victim later dies). The administration committed to continued monitoring and community outreach; no vote or formal action was taken at the meeting.