A sharp rise in murders along with an increase in overdose deaths were revealed in Prince William County, Virginia 2019 annual report by its police department.
Overall, the crime rate has been falling in the county, with 11.9 crimes per 1,000 residents in 2019 compared with 12.9 per 1,000 residents in 2018.
However, some troublesome statistics remain.
The county has seen rise in murders since in 2017, when only four murders were recorded. There were nine murders in 2018 and 14 in 2019.
Based on police investigations of the 14 murders committed in 2019, all but one of the victims knew the person that killed them. Guns were used in 12 of the 14 the killings.
Rape, aggravated assault, robberies, vehicle theft and larceny have all gone down since 2017.
Robberies are down almost 14%, burglaries fell 7% and vehicle theft fell almost 25%.
Death due to drug overdose also saw a rise, following a trend seen across the commonwealth. The report revealed deaths due to opioid and fentanyl overdoses saw a total increase of more than 10% in 2019.
Fatal crashes went down by almost 50%. The total amount of alcohol related deaths as a result of a crash decreased as well — by almost 60%.
The total number of all crashes however increased by 3% in the past year.
