Report: Violent crime in Wilmington at its lowest in 13 years

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A few different types of crime are at record lows in the City of Wilmington.

According to the 2022 Crime Update shared by Wilmington Police Chief Donny Williams; violent crime, burglary, and total part-one crime are at record lows since 2009. Chief Williams credited these numbers to the help of several agencies and members of the community.

“No one entity or one agency can take credit for these reductions. Many efforts on many different fronts went into making this happen,” Williams said during the meeting.

All violent crimes, including murder and rape, went down from 2021 to 2022. The only exception was robbery, which went up by one case.

Police responded to 13 murders, 79 rapes, 106 robberies, and 405 aggravated assaults.

While shootings have increased nationwide in the past few years, shooting incidents decreased from 2021 to 2022 in Wilmington.

Last year, there were seven fewer incidents and 26 fewer victims than in 2021.

A total of 11 shootings claimed 13 lives in 2022. According to Chief Williams, one was a drug deal gone bad, two were gang-related, two were domestic violence incidents, and six were fatal assaults.

Arrests have been made in 10 of the 11 incidents.

Overall, property crimes went down 3 percent from 2021. However, motor vehicle theft and arson went up. Officers reported 417 burglaries, 2,578 larcenies, 267 motor vehicle thefts, and 15 arsons.