RAPID CITY, S.D. – An anomaly.
That’s what the captain of the Rapid City Police Department of Criminal Investigation Division hopes the growing number of homicides in the ciity is. An anomaly.
Rapid City has seen 12 homicides in 2020, double the amount reported in 2019 and the most homicides Rapid City has seen in at least the last eight years.
According to John Olson, the RCPD captain of the criminal investigation division, drugs and alcohol were a factor in most of this year’s homicides and that typically, the victim and perpetrator had a previous connection, as opposed to random violence.
The captain said he doesn’t think the increase in homicides has to do with the pandemic specifically but also says he has never seen such increases before. He notes that the increase is three times more homicides than on any given year. But he also believes those statistics are not the new norm for the community.
The criminal investigation division has solved most of the 2020 homicides, according to Olson and is well on its way to solving the most recent one that occured on Christmas Eve.
