Amid what's already a remarkably deadly year in Buffalo, one killing has been dropped from the Buffalo Police Department's criminal homicide list after investigators determined it to be self-defense, according to police.
As of Thursday, the city's revised homicide total through the end of June was 46, according to the latest police department data.
Even with the statistical change, the first six months of the year in Buffalo have still been more than twice as deadly than the average for that period over the last decade, according to a Buffalo News analysis of police data.
Here's what's behind the downward adjustment – authorities now believe a March stabbing on Box Avenue, originally considered a criminal homicide, was an act of self-defense by a woman who was the victim of domestic assault.
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At about 10:45 p.m. March 13, Buffalo police found Rick Ross, 22, dead of a single stab wound in an apartment on Box Avenue, near Moselle Street.
Ross' girlfriend killed him in self-defense, investigators determined.
There had been a domestic assault in progress before the woman stabbed Ross. She was beaten and her cellphone was broken, according to the District Attorney's Office.
The woman was fully cooperative in the investigation, prosecutors said.
From 2011 through 2020, the average number of homicides in Buffalo for the first six months of the year was 21, according to a News analysis. Last year, there were 32 homicides over the same period. Over the last decade, the fewest homicides from January through June came in 2015 when there were 12.
Over the last decade, Buffalo has averaged 50 homicides a year.
In addition to a dramatic surge in homicides, the number of people shot in the city has also skyrocketed. Through May 22, shootings in the city were up 139% compared with the average over the past decade, according to a News analysis of police data.
Buffalo police on Thursday released the names of the city's most recent seven homicide victims.
On June 18, Tyler E. Wasinger, 22, was fatally shot on Hobart Street in the city's Seneca-Babcock neighborhood. Franklin Andrews, 23, has been charged with second-degree manslaughter. Police allege he recklessly caused Wasinger's death.
Tommy Wilson, 53; Darius Henderson, 48; and Tony Martin, 29, were killed in last week's triple homicide on Ashley Street, police said. Police have increased patrols in that area, Mayor Byron W. Brown said last week.
The man killed in a shooting June 25 near Kehr and French streets has been identified as Paris Stephens, 22.
Anthony Stoudimer, 40, was fatally shot Sunday near Kent and Playter streets, police said. Also that day, Elijah Pratcher, 27, was fatally shot on North Ogden Street.
No arrests have been made in any homicide that has occurred since June 18.
Crisis Services offers a 24-hour domestic violence hotline at 862-HELP (4357). The 24-hour state domestic and sexual violence hotline is 1-800-942-6906.
Police ask anyone with information about any shooting or homicide to call or text the department's confidential tip line at 847-2255.
