Gun-related deaths continued to rise in metro Phoenix in 2022

PHOENIX — Gun-related deaths in metro Phoenix continued to see an uptick in 2022, according to the Maricopa County Medical Examiner annual report released this month.

There were 863 deaths via gunshot wound last year, up 12% from last year (769 deaths) and 34% five years ago (644), according to the eighth annual report.

Gun deaths again outpaced traffic deaths in Maricopa County, a trend that has been seen every year since 2015 except 2021.

Of those fatalities, 361 were homicides, the highest total in the state’s most populous county since tracking began in 1991.

Gunshot wounds, as a result, represented a large proportion of Maricopa County’s homicides in 2022.

Eighty-two percent of the 438 homicides last year were due to firearms.

The firearm-caused homicide rate was 7.9 per 100,000 people, a 19% increase from the previous year and more than double the lowest rate (3.8 per 100,000 people) in the past decade, which happened in 2014.

Suicides were the largest total of gun-related deaths in 2022.

There were 487 deaths, far outpacing totals for other manners of suicide.

Maricopa County saw 43,972 deaths in 2022, a 10% decrease from 2021, a total the county said can be attributed to a shift away from the COVID pandemic.

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