EDMONTON -- The Edmonton Police Service says the city is on track in 2021 to match the 38 homicides from last year, despite a recent run of killings.
The number of year-to-date homicides has nearly doubled from seven at this point in 2020 to 13 today. Investigators are looking into a 14th case as well but say they are not ready to release details.
Insp. Brent Dahlseide of the EPS Major Crimes Branch says that although the recent homicides appear unrelated, they fit a typical pattern.
Four of the 13 confirmed homicides have happened in May.
"We typically have about one or two periods a year where we will see three or four investigations within a week," he said, noting that homicide detectives had opened four cases in the past six days, though not all are confirmed homicides.
"There's no reason that we can see for the increase from 2020 to 2021 year to date."
This year's homicides don't include one suspicious death that occurred on May 3 that remains under investigation but is being treated as a homicide.
Insp. Dahlseide said the city has averaged 35 homicides per year over the past six years.
Despite the recent increase, he said the city remains on track to match the 38 from 2020.
He said the recent killings don't appear to be linked and there's no consistent involvement
According to numbers compiled by CTV News over the past decade, homicides in Edmonton peaked at 47 in 2011 with 2017 (44) and 2016 (42) also seeing high numbers.
The city also had 14 homicides at this point in 2019 but finished with only 26 for the year, tied for the lowest in the past decade as well as with 2013's identical tally.
