TOLEDO — Toledo is on pace for its fewest homicides in more than a decade, but more people are being shot than a year ago, according to the city’s third-quarter crime figures, presented at a Nov. 2 news conference at Toledo police headquarters and reported by Lake Erie Inquiry from the City of Toledo’s own video of the event, with the same figures reported by 13abc.
Toledo recorded 22 homicides in the first nine months of 2026, down from 30 in the same months last year — a drop of 27 percent — the city’s figures show. Over the same period, 134 people were shot, up from 113, an increase of 19 percent, according to the figures presented Nov. 2.
It was the city’s quarterly crime report, and the first for Police Chief Kevin Braun, who took over Nov. 2 from Mike Troendle, who retired, according to Lake Erie Inquiry. Braun called the numbers “a bit of a mixed bag” at the news conference, but said, according to Lake Erie Inquiry: “The reality is crime is down in our city. Full stop.” On the rising number of people shot, Braun was blunter, according to Lake Erie Inquiry: “Those numbers to us are unacceptable.” Police have tracked people shot only since 2024, he said.
Four of the six measures the city reported declined. Robberies fell 19 percent, from 228 to 185; thefts from cars fell 8 percent, from 754 to 694; and auto thefts fell 6 percent, from 903 to 845, the city’s figures show. Burglaries were nearly flat, up 13 to 977, and Braun said the gap had been larger earlier in the year and was shrinking, according to Lake Erie Inquiry. Officers seized 983 guns in the first nine months, up from 962 a year earlier, and police have solved 83 percent of this year’s homicides, against 81 percent last year and a national rate Braun put at about 65 percent, according to Lake Erie Inquiry.
Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz pointed to what the homicide pace would mean by year’s end. Barring a “very tragic final seven weeks,” Toledo will end 2026 “at our lowest number in over a decade,” the mayor said at the news conference, according to Lake Erie Inquiry. The city recorded 35 homicides in 2016 and 39 in 2017, before the pandemic-era spike, and 38 in each of the last two full years, the city has said.
The mayor also offered a sobering comparison: for the first time anyone can remember, Toledo will probably record more traffic deaths than homicides this year, he said, according to Lake Erie Inquiry — 24 people died in Toledo crashes in 2025, the city said in January. And he acknowledged that some residents still do not feel safe, saying, according to Lake Erie Inquiry, that “in many cases, things feel bad because they are bad.”
What happens next: Braun has been sworn in as chief, and the city’s year-end crime numbers — the test of both the homicide pace and the rising shooting count — are due out in late January or early February.
Photo: MrJacon000, CC BY-SA