COLUMBIA, S.C. — Richland County Sheriff's Department announced their annual crime report Wednesday, with 35 homicides last year it was the highest number they've had in recent years.
News 19 looked into the crime reports all over the Midlands, and the numbers range from 35 homicides, to zero homicides for some counties.
In Richland County, Sheriff Leon Lott there were 35 homicides last year. Lott said seven of those, however, were justifiable That is a higher number then the previous year for Richland County. In 2017, there were 23 killings, but none of those cases are still open.
Columbia Police said they had 16 homicides, with 14 of those cleared with arrests.
Shifting over to Lexington, the police department had zero homicides in the Town of Lexington in 2018. The same number they had in 2017. Lexington Sheriff's Department had 14 homicides in 2017, and that number went down to 9 for this past year.
Sumter Police Department's report also went down from five homicides in 2017, to four in 2018. The Sumter Sheriff's Department stayed the same with three homicides for both years. They also had 122 individual assaults involving fire arms in 2018.
Orangeburg Sheriff's Department confirmed they had 13 homicides.
In Fairfield, their sheriff's department had four total murders in 2017, and zero in 2018. There were four shootings where someone was actually shot; six incidents where either someone was shot at or their home or vehicle was shot at, but out of those six no one was injured.
Newberry Sheriff Lee Foster said they have not had any homicides in the past two years.
Thre Bishopville Police Department also said they have had no homicides the past year.