2016 A Violent Year That’s Not Over Yet

2016 was a violent year in the city of Yakima with 12 homicides reported. Yakima Police say it's the largest number of homicides reported in the last 4 years. Police spokesman Mike Bastinelli says while they do everything they can to prevent crime "Homicide is hard to predict and it's not a crime where you could take measures to prevent murders.. The murders we saw earlier this year like a murder suicide there's nothing you can do about that."
Bastinelli says police detectives worked hard to make arrests. And in fact arrests have been made in 10 of the 12 homicides reported in 2016. Two homicides, one on 8th Street and another on Cherry Avenue remain unsolved. In 2015 7 homicides were reported in the city of Yakima.