Scranton shaken by five homicides already this year

SCRANTON — Five homicides already this year — all coming after a police officer survived getting shot — have unnerved the city.

The spasm of killings was within fewer than 10 weeks, from early March to mid-May.

The recent spate of shocking violence already marking 2024 as an outlier began Jan. 11 with the shooting of Scranton police Detective Kyle Gilmartin. Despite being shot twice in the head by an assailant at point-blank range in West Scranton during an investigation of shootings in the city, Gilmartin has made a remarkable recovery.

But several homicides soon followed.

■ On March 7, another shooting at point-blank point range, this time during a gas-station robbery in North Scranton, killed a random victim two days later.

■ A man was found March 10 strangled to death in a home on St. Ann’s Street in West Side in a drug robbery.

■ A month later, on April 9, in what police termed a gang-related fatality at Weston Field, a man was beaten by a group and shot multiple times.

■ Three weeks later in South Scranton, a domestic-violence incident on April 29 resulted in a man accused of fatally shooting his brother in the back of the head in their home.

■ Mid May brought another grisly death: a man shot in the chest late on May 14 while he was behind the wheel of his vehicle in West Scranton during a drug-buy robbery.

Though unrelated to each other, the five killings coming in such quick succession have shaken the city, officials and residents say. Some incidents also involved young adults and juveniles.

“I acknowledge that there’s a level of fear out there, given that we’ve had these five homicides, and I feel that, too. I feel that as mayor,” Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti said.

Senior-citizen Joan Hodowanitz recalled a time when killings in the city were rare.

“I’m old enough to remember years in Scranton when we didn’t have any homicides and if we had even one in a five-year period, it was shocking,” Hodowanitz said during Scranton City Council’s weekly meeting Tuesday.

“Five homicides in less than five months? Something’s wrong here.”

People often feel unsafe following a rash of homicides, although they are not necessarily at greater risk, said Michael Jenkins, chairman of the University of Scranton’s criminal justice, cybersecurity and sociology department.

Drugs, gangs and domestic violence are more likely to spur homicides than random acts, Jenkins said. At least three of the five homicides this year involved suspects who were familiar with the victims before the crimes.

“In terms of the everyday person’s risk of victimization, I think that the homicides in cities like Scranton have a vastly disproportionate influence on people’s perception of safety,” Jenkins said.

According to the Pennsylvania Uniform Crime Reporting System, homicides in Scranton per year over the prior five years include:

2019: 0

2020: 2

2021: 1

2022: 1

2023: 3

By comparison, five homicides already this year is startling.

Circumstances of crimes also play a role in public perception of safety.

For example, the March 7 incident had a robbery suspect wearing a black garbage bag on his body and partially over his face walk through the store’s front door and without saying a word shoot a random customer in the head.

The Gilmartin shooting two months earlier also stunned and unnerved the community. A suspect walked up to an unmarked police sedan and fired five rounds into the car, striking Gilmartin twice.

That line-of-duty shooting and the series of homicides that followed have raised fears and questions about the safety of the city.

Hodowanitz urged council to “take a hard look” at whether the city police department is properly staffed, manned, trained and budgeted.

“If this trend continues, it’s not only putting the public at risk, it’s putting our police officers at risk,” Hodowantiz said. “You can’t send them out to face a situation like that with just half the assets they need.”

Cognetti said her administration is reviewing whether the city needs to add more police officers.

“We are looking at that,” Cognetti said. “We’ll continue to see if there are things that we need to do to increase the budget for the police. If there are additional positions that are needed, we will absolutely put those forward if those are necessary. And also what are the tools that they need.”

Her administration added deputy police chief position and an information technology position for public safety, she said.

The Street Crimes Unit also has been attacking gang and drug issues for a long time and “we continue to innovate with their priorities and they continue to shift their tactics, given the situation on the ground,” the mayor said.

The city also has modernized the police-entry test and the number of applicants now have returned to pre-pandemic levels, she said.

Arbitration last year removed a residency requirement for police officers. The city in 2020 also removed an Act 120 requirement. With the help of state funding, the city now sends people who don’t already have Act 120 certification to a training academy.

“We continue to make investments in our police department,” Cognetti said.

“But there’s so much more that goes into this,” she added, noting other efforts underway. The city has a youth engagement council with a subcommittee on juveniles. The city will soon request proposals from non-governmental, nonprofit entities to help shape a violence intervention program. An entity would be operated by a full-time person who’s not a city employee, but who works on violence intervention.

“We’re working this issue from every angle we can,” Cognetti said.