Camden's bloody year worse than it appears

When Gregory Holder died Friday, succumbing to wounds suffered last week in an attack over a drug transaction, he made history.

According to Camden officials, Holder's death marks the 58th homicide in the city, tying the record set in 1995.

But that number tells only one side of the story, and evidence suggests this year is much more violent than the last time the record was set.

Holder's death comes with seven weeks left in 2012.

And Camden's population has decreased by about 8,000 since 1995, according to Census Bureau estimates.

The homicide rate - the number of homicides, weighted by population - is already more than 10 percent higher this year than it was in 1995.

If more homicides occur in the remaining weeks of the year, that rate will increase.

"The boldness of the criminal is greater now than it was back then. There are greater social challenges today than there were then," said Camden Police Chief Scott Thomson, who was a Camden patrol officer in 1995.

"I'm not trying to paint a picture like in 1995 it was Haddonfield, by any stretch of the imagination - there were extreme challenges then and there are extreme challenges now. But I think the street cop today has a much tougher patrol route than I did."

Thomson said decreased staffing levels in the department had left the city vulnerable, though he does not see police as a panacea for what he calls a "culture of violence."

Thomson, chief since 2008, favors a plan to create a regional police force that supporters say will increase the number of police on the street.

"The population is less, the city is poorer today than it was then, and the school system has gotten worse. There are a myriad of fixes to this," the police chief said. "Public safety underpins every other effort. It's not the fix, but it's the most important variable in the equation."

While the number of homicide victims now equals 1995's record, Thomson said, the number of homicide incidents has actually increased; 1995 had multiple double homicides and one triple homicide. By the time 54 victims had died this year, he said, there had already been 51 incidents, compared with 1995's 49.

In fact, the embattled city may already have broken its record number of homicide victims.

Officials suspect a June 29 fire that killed Kenny Holmes Jr. and his girlfriend, Qua'Nyrah Houston, was arson, but there has not yet been an official ruling.

The two teenagers died of smoke inhalation when a fire broke out in Holmes' rowhouse in the 1000 block of Thurman Street. They were apparently trying to escape, and their bodies were found side by side near the front door.

And there are other crime victims, Thomson said, who are in critical or unstable condition.

Of the 58 deaths ruled homicides so far this year, 54 victims were male, an Inquirer analysis shows. Gunshot wounds account for the vast majority of the deaths (46), followed by stabbing (six), blunt trauma (five), and smoke inhalation (one). The average victim's age is 29.

For an interactive map of Camden homicides,

go to: www.philly.com/camdenhomicides

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