While murders continue to spike in 2021, the numbers are in for 2020, and California homicides increased by 31% last year, making it the deadliest year since 2007, according to state crime reports released Thursday.
There were 2,202 homicides in the State of California in 2020, resulting in 1,597 arrests. The state saw 1,679 homicides in 2019. Consequently, their homicide rate rose from 4.2 to 5.5 homicides per 100,000 people, Fox News reported.
The Golden State had not seen that many homicides since 2007 when 2,258 people were killed, according to the new report from the California Department of Justice.
Also of note, in 2020 California had 143 justifiable homicides reported. Of these, 85 were committed by a peace officer and 58 were committed by a private citizen, according to the report.
