Kern County leads the state in the highest homicide rate among counties with 100,000 or more residents

Job : Jul 3, 2020 / 3:29 PM PDT
/ Update: Jul 3, 2020 / 7:25 p.m. PDT

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) – Last year, Kern County had the highest homicide rate of any county in the state with a population of 100,000 or more, according to the State Department of Justice. the state.

Kern in 2019 had a homicide rate of 9.2 per 100,000 population, according to a DOJ report released this week. The county recorded a total of 84 homicides, according to the report.

That number, however, is 12 less than the county’s total homicide count last year, compiled by the KGET Homicide Tracker, which includes the names and ages of every person killed in the county. It’s unclear why there’s a discrepancy, but the Homicide Tracker also includes prison murders and those killed in shootings involving officers.

And Kern is on track in 2020 for another lethal year. By mid-year, the county had seen 60 homicides.

That figure includes eight Delano murders, with each victim aged 21 or younger. The youngest victim was 11 years old. The unidentified girl and a 12-year-old girl were killed in a shooting Thursday night.

The body of a 15-year-old Delano boy, Angel Manuel Haro Villareal, was found in May by farm workers at a vineyard on Cecil Avenue and Wallace Road. The sheriff’s office said he died of gunshot wounds.

In April, 16-year-old Abraham Ali Romero died two days after being shot in the throat in the 700 block of Anita Avenue.

There were also two fatal shootings in the city in April. Fresno State student Nayeli Carrillo Gonzalez, 19, was shot dead in Cesar Chavez Park on January 2. Adam Rene Guillen, 21, was shot and killed on January 31 while standing with four others at a memorial for the victim of a fatal accident in November.