(The Center Square) — New Orleans had its first homicide in almost three weeks on Saturday.
Officers found 39-year-old Nolan Greathouse suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, according to the New Orleans Police Department. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The homicide on Sept. 21 is the lone murder to be documented in the city since the first of the month. The Big Easy doesn’t normally see droughts like that except in the case of a hurricane.
Historically, New Orleans is considered a murder capitol in the U.S. The city’s homicide rate of 27.1 per 100,000 residents in 2022 was the highest in the nation.
The deadliest areas in 2022 included Little Woods, Central City and the Seventh Ward, which collectively accounted for more than a quarter of the murders in the city.
However, this year the city has seen a staggering drop in this type of crime. After 266 homicides in 2022, the most since 2004, and 194 in 2023, murders have plummeted to 52 so far this year according to NOPD crime statistics. Also, the average age for murder victims has went up this year hitting 35 for the first time.
Many states saw an uptick in crime following the COIVD-19 pandemic, and none more than Louisiana. The lowest homicide rate in New Orleans occurred in 2019 since city officials began tracking it in 1992. Now, the Crescent City could be seeing an even lower number if another drought begins much like most of September.
Nationally, incidence of crime including serious violence like murder and rape have decreased 3% from 2022 to 2023, according to new data released by the FBI on Monday.
Preliminary numbers showed that 2024 crime numbers were also dropping for the early part of this year, continuing a trend of easing crime as the U.S. has come out of the pandemic.
