Looking back at the biggest local crime stories of 2022
As we close out 2022, we take a look back at some of the biggest crime stories over the past year in the desert.
The first murder of the year in the valley happened in Palm Springs on Jan. 11 in the parking lot at Raising Cane's. A 32-year-old man was shot and killed.
Just months later, a triple shooting in the same parking lot. One person died, 2 others were injured and 2 suspects were charged.
We counted the number of homicides in each of the valley's cities. In 2022 there were a total of 37 compared to 35 in 2021.
The city of Coachella has the highest number of homicides this year with 9 in all. Followed by Indio and Desert Hot Springs with 6 each, Palm Springs with 5, and Cathedral City holding at 2.
Valley cities covered by the Riverside County Sheriff's Department including Palm Desert, La Quinta and Rancho Mirage combined, by our calculations, have a total of 6 with Indian Wells not reporting a single homicide.
Some of the biggest local crime stories making headlines included a deadly stabbing at a Palm Desert hotel in July. Police calling it a domestic violence confrontation. A man was charged in the stabbing deaths of his wife and another man in the parking lot.
"it's hard to make sense of something that is so senseless but this is going to take a community"
A family looking for justice after brothers were shot and killed in early December their bodies discovered in a burnt out car in the open desert in Indio. A 22-year-old man has been arrested.
And in September a grandmother, mom and aunt were arrested and charged in the murder of a 5-year-old boy out of Coachella. According to documents, the women inflicted "unjustifiable physical pain and mental suffering" on the boy and 4 other children as well.
According to data compiled by the Gun Violence Archive, 2022 is on track to be the second-highest year for mass shootings in the U.S. with 607 recorded through November 22.
While we didn't have mass shootings in the valley, schools took safety precautions, and in one case possibly stopping the worst from happening.
"we're getting calls from our children saying there's someone with a gun in the school"
A threat of a student with a gun at a middle school in Thermal had police evacuating three campuses, and 4,000 students escorted out of their classrooms. A gun was found in a backpack. Two teens were taken into police custody.
There were an additional two homicides in unincorporated areas of the valley bringing the total to 37.
This year, we continued to follow the Palm Springs quadruple murder re-trial of Jose Larin-Garcia. Court will be back in session after the holidays.
Meantime, the sheriff's department and local police agencies are working to add more staffing to keep valley cities safe.
