Nashville Murder Rate Pacing Towards 20-Year High

NASHVILLE, TN -- As the year ends, Nashville is pacing towards a 20-year high for murders.

The murder of 17-year-old Ja'Donte Thompson late Tuesday, who was shot and killed protecting his family in a home invasion, was the 97th homicide of the year in Davidson County. There were 83 homicides in Metro in 2016.

With 25 days remaining in the year, Nashville is on pace for about 104 homicides. That would be the highest number since 1997, when the city set a record with 112. That was the year Middle Tennessee was terrorized by Paul Dennis Reid, the "Fast Food Killer," who killed seven people in murders in Nashville and Clarksville.

Some of the increase can be attributed to population growth, though a growth rate of 2 percent or so does not account for the entire increase in the murder rate.

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