Nearing the end of the year, the murder counts for 2012 in both San Francisco and Oakland are up over last year, ending what had been a two-year lull of relatively low violent crime. A sixteen-year-old girl found in distress on the sidewalk Sunday afternoon near the intersection of Quesada Avenue and Jennings Street, in the Bayview, was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. A male suspect at the victim's home was taken into custody on suspicion of abuse and possibly murder, which would bring S.F.'s count for the year to 64.
The victim has been identified as Jaynice Johnson, and the relationship between her and the male suspect has not been revealed by investigators. The incident has not yet been ruled a homicide.
This follows on the shooting death of an 18-year-old male Satuday night, also in the Bayview.
Meanwhile, in Oakland, the count hit 123 on Friday with the death of Aaron Lang, who succumbed to injuries from a beating on December 8. Lang had been at Highland Hospital since December 9. Less than three weeks earlier, the count in Oakland hit 115, triggering alarm bells that 2012 could be the bloodiest year the city had seen since 2008, when the total hit 125. With two weeks left in the year, 2012 is on track to exceed 2008 in the number of homicides committed in the East Bay city, and that count includes the seven people killed at Oikos University in April, in the biggest mass murder of the city's history.
San Francisco's homicide count for 2011 was 50, up from 48 in 2010. At a total of 64, this has been the most violent year in the city since 2009, when the count was 98.
