City of Milwaukee sees 70 percent increase in homicides

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- A troubling trend has emerged in the City of Milwaukee this year. 

The number of homicides is up nearly 70-percent from this time last year.

There have been 80 homicides, according to the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office. There were 47 as of June 16 last year.

The increase is due in part to a pair of mass shootings -- one that claimed the lives of five people at the Molson Coors plant, and the fatal shooting of five people, including four teenagers, in late April.

On Tuesday, officials also talked about another factor fueling the surge.

"There was much discussion on the source of this," said Alderman Scott Spiker. "Inspector Gordon testified that 35-percent of homicides this year were due to...he demured from the term domestic violence, he preferred family violence or intimate partner violence. But 35-percent of homicides this year were due to that, and that was compared to, as he remembered, single digits most years."

The report found the domestic homicide rate was equal to last year through February, but took a big jump after stay at home orders took effect.