Palm Beach County recorded 96 homicides during 2022, down 17 from the year before, law enforcement and medical examiner records show.
The 15% decrease occurred one year after the county recorded 113 homicides, its highest homicide total in the past decade. It returned the county to a number close to its historic yearly average. Over the past 10 years, the county has averaged 99 homicides per year, even though it grew by about 185,000 people to a population of 1.5 million.
Since 2009, The Palm Beach Post has tracked homicides in the county through an online database, using records from law enforcement agencies and the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner's Office.
Drawing conclusions from the county's annual homicide count has grown complicated because of changes in state law and the number of homicides confirmed by the medical examiner for which key details have not been made available. Those details include the place of death and the law enforcement agency investigating the case.
The medical examiner and several law enforcement agencies also have changed the way they report cases since Florida voters in 2018 approved an amendment to the state constitution modeled after California's Marsy's Law. It allows either victims of crime or their families to request that their names be withheld from public reports.
As a result, the community rarely learns the identity of the victim, beyond whether they are an adult or a juvenile. In 2022, law enforcement agencies named of just 21 of the 96 homicide victims, frequently citing the 2018 amendment.
The Post's database indicates the following:
- Most homicide victims in 2022 died by gunfire, in line with past years. The limited data available says it happened in 61 of the 96 cases.
- In many instances,the victims and their accused attackers knew each other, with at least a dozen cases being classified as either domestic or murder-suicides, records show.
- There were six cases in 2022 that involved two victims in the same incident, but no cases involving three or more victims.
- Nine homicide deaths involved juveniles, including three children under the age of 2.
- The county’s 2022 homicide total includes three officer-involved shooting deaths.
Juvenile victims ranged from 17 years to 1 month
One of the earliest juvenile deaths in The Post's database is the February 2022 shooting of an 8-year-old girl in Belle Glade.
Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office investigators said Ronziyah Atkins was killed by gunfire intended for someone else as she stood on the front porch of a home on Southeast First Street.
Days after the shooting, sheriff's investigators arrested Andrew James of Royal Palm Beach on charges of first-degree murder and attempted murder. James, now 21, has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is awaiting trial.
In April, a 16-month boy identified by West Palm Beach police as "Baby Kaleb" was killed when an unknown gunman targeted a vehicle occupied by the child and his parents in an alleyway south of Fourth Street and Douglass Avenue. City police announced a $40,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible.
'We can bring justice to this family':West Palm police offer $40K reward in child's fatal shooting
“This is a terrible incident,” West Palm Beach Police Chief Frank Adderley said in an April news conference announcing the reward. “We have and infant kid, 16 months old, that was murdered. We know that there are some people in this neighborhood who know who these shooters are. And we know that, with their help, we can bring justice to this family.”
City police had not announced an arrest in the "Baby Kaleb" homicide as of Jan. 11.
Another case was the March death of an 1-month-old child listed in the medical examiner's records. No other details have been made available, and the Florida Department of Children and Families did not respond to The Post's request for information last week.
Many victims knew attackers
In many instances,the victims and their accused attackers were known to each other, with at least a dozen cases being classified as either domestic or murder-suicides, records show.
In one such case in February, Palm Springs policealleged that Joan Burke fatally stabbed her disabled 62-year-old husband, Melvin Weller, 140 times and attacked him with a meat cleaver during a fit of rage in the couple’s home. Burke, 61, pleaded guilty in June to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
More:Palm Springs woman who stabbed husband more than 140 times sentenced to 35 years for his death
In Boca Raton, a man and woman were found dead July 10 in a residence on the 5000 block of Northwest Third Terrace. Investigators said the man gained access to a family vacationhome without permission from other family members, and a female relative asked him to leave. The man shot the relative, then turned the gun and killed himself, police said.
Police did not the disclose the relationship between the man and woman or their identities, citing the 2018 amendment.
There were six cases in 2022 that involved two victims in the same incident.
In April, Palm Beach Gardens police arrested 27-year-old Alexandra Cupolo in April, alleging that she shot and killed her fiancé, Dr. Andrew Sturm, and her mother, Jacqueline Cupolo, in an attack at a home in the Bayhill Estates community. The younger Cupolo provided varying explanations from saying she acted in self-defense to explaining that she was under the influence of the occult, police said at the time of her arrest.
Palm Beach Gardens:Woman charged with double homicide; mother, fiancé found dead at home
She faces two counts of first-degree murder and is scheduled to have her next court hearing in February before Circuit Court Judge Sarah Willis.
Delray Beach police said that two men, Gerhode Ocean and Joney Dolcine, were killed when someone fired shots into a crowd during a Fourth of July block party on Southwest Third Street. As of Jan. 11, city police had not announced arrests in Ocean and Dolcine's homicides.
Law-enforcement agencies did not name the victims in the four other homicide cases involving two victims.
County saw 3 officer-involved shootings
The county’s 2022 homicide total includes three officer-involved shooting deaths, two involving the West Palm Beach Police Department and one the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. In each case, the agency withheld the officer's name, citing the same protections given to crime victims under the 2018 constitutional amendment. A Tallahassee court is considering a challenge to giving law enforcement officers those protections.
An off-duty West Palm Beach police shot and killed 33-year-old Romen Phelps during an encounter on the campus of the Dreyfoos School of the Arts. Police investigators said Phelps drove his white cargo van through a locked gate, narrowly missing a golf cart driver, before crashing the van into a palm tree.
More:Dozens gather for Romen Phelps memorial near Dreyfoos campus
A city police spokesman said Phelps was erratic and violent in the moments before the shooting. Three students who said they encountered Phelps told The Post he was neither armed nor threatening.
In September, a sheriff's deputy shot and killed 21-year-old Jose Villanueva in a supermarket parking lot in Greenacres. Investigators alleged that Villanueva was pointing a gun in a threatening manner when the deputy shot him.
More:Lake Worth-area man, 21, dies after deputy-involved shooting in Publix parking lot
In November, a 22-year-old man was killed in what a police spokesman described as a “violent encounter” with West Palm Beach police officers at 15th Street and Windsor Avenue. Spokesman Mike Jachles said he could not disclose the name of the man who died because the man's family invoked its right to privacy.
The shooting remains under investigation.
The medical examiner’s office includes officer-involved and other acts that may be considered self-defense in its count because they meet the clinical definition of a homicide. The Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office, with assistance from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, will determine whether the actions of the officers involved in the fatal encounters were legally justified.
A State Attorney's Office spokesperson said the cases are still under review.
Help is availablefor people experiencing domestic violence or suicidal thoughts. Call thePalm Beach County Victim Services24-hour helpline at 561-833-7273, or the 24-hour Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.
Julius Whigham II is a criminal justice and public safety reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him atjwhigham@pbpost.comand follow him on Twitter at@JuliusWhigham. Help support our work:Subscribe today.
