Three ZIP codes in the city saw around 30% of recorded homicides so far this year.
This story is part of The Dallas Morning News' homicide project focused on sharing the stories of all people killed in Dallas in 2024.
Three ZIP codes in Dallas have recorded 10 or more homicides this year, according to data kept by The Dallas Morning News.
Advertisement
That's more than three times the average per ZIP code in 2024, data from 49 Dallas ZIP codes shows.
Advertisement
Data from around 150 homicides in 2024 showed nearly 30% occurred in 75216, 75215 and 75243 ZIP codes, encompassing east Oak Cliff, South Dallas and Lake Highlands.
Crime in The News
Read the crime and public safety news your neighbors are talking about.
SIGN UP
Or with:
GoogleFacebook
By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
75216, around the east Oak Cliff neighborhood, saw the most of any Dallas ZIP code with around 18 homicides recorded this year. The ZIP code is one of the more populated in the city with around 55,760 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2020 data.
Advertisement
The neighborhood has lost more sons, mothers, friends and children to violence than any other area in the city.
Shaketta Johnson, 30, was killed in April at Glendale Shopping Center and leaves behind a daughter. Carlos King, a 44-year-old father of three, was fatally shot on Kathleen Avenue in the same month. Betty Hearn, 80, was shot and killed in her home in east Oak Cliff in March. More than a dozen others from the neighborhood were killed in homicides this year.
"It's traumatic," said Taylor Toynes, CEO of the community nonprofit For Oak Cliff. "I've lived and worked in the 75216 ZIP code the majority of my life. ... It impacts a whole generation, a whole cohort of friends, of loved ones."
AdvertisementAdvertisement
The community center aims to support social mobility in the neighborhood. Toynes said For Oak Cliff hopes to institutionalize hope, build coalitions and serve the community to ultimately make it stronger.
"We are not just a number. This is a super block," Toynes said. "I'm hopeful that 10 years from now, we won't be talking about any murders in our ZIP code."
75215 in South Dallas saw the second-most homicides this year, according to data kept by The News, with 15 recorded. Among them, 15-year-old Moises Huerta Gonzalez and 17-year-old Zayvyon Jones.
Advertisement
The area is less populated than other ZIP codes that saw more homicides than average, with around 18,800 people, according to the U.S. Census.
The only ZIP code in this ranking north of the city's center is 75243, encompassing the Lake Highlands neighborhood and far northeast Dallas. The ZIP code has 10 homicides on record this year. It has around 62,270 residents, according to the U.S. Census, and is one of the most populated ZIP codes in Dallas.
Other ZIP codes with more than double the average homicides recorded this year are 75237 and 75232 in the Red Bird neighborhood, 75217 near southeast Dallas and Pleasant Grove, 75204 in Old East Dallas and 75210 in South Dallas. Each had seven or more homicides recorded.
Advertisement
Data kept by The News shows most homicides in Dallas, nearly 90%, are the result of a shooting. More than 83% have male victims and nearly 40% are between 18 and 29 years old, according to data compiled this year. More than 90% of homicide victims are Black or Hispanic. More than 35% of homicide cases this year have not been cleared.
In 2023, at least 246 people died by homicide in Dallas, one of the deadliest years of the past two decades. This year, more than 150 people have died in homicides in Dallas as of early October.
Violent crime in the city was down in the first quarter of the year, according to data released by the Dallas Police Department, and a downward trend in murders is happening in cities nationwide.
Advertisement
The News is tracking demographic information about homicide victims in Dallas in 2024 and updating a map of where the killings occurred as part of its Life and Loss in Dallas series. To share information about a victim of a homicide in the city this year, email [email protected].
Related StoriesView MoreAfter the death of a Dallas teen, his best friend vows to remember 'who he actually was'Slain man's confession earned brother's forgiveness weeks before Red Bird shooting'He lives in her': 10-year-old carries on father's spirit after Old East Dallas shooting