It has been a very busy year for the Saskatchewan RCMP Major Crimes Investigation Unit.
There have been 39 homicides so far in 2022—30 male and 9 female. The number of incidents has been on the rise since 2019 with more gang-related homicides. An exception was the mass casualty event during the Labour Day long weekend on the James Smith Cree Nation and the nearby community of Weldon.
RCMP note some of the investigations involve multiple suspects and are more complex in nature. The Officer in charge of Saskatchewan RCMP Major Crimes, Superintendent Josh Graham says investigators are doing an outstanding job of balancing newly reported cases with continuing investigations. He notes the increased number of homicides has not been met with an additional number of investigative resources and calls the past three years “challenging”.
Total number of homicide victims:
- 2015: 26 – 17 male, 9 female
- 2016: 35 – 27 male, 8 female
- 2017: 23 – 15 male, 8 female
- 2018: 22 – 14 male, 8 female
- 2019: 20 – 14 male, 6 female
- 2020: 31 – 26 male, 5 female
- 2021: 34 – 26 male, 8 female
- 2022 (Jan-Dec 9): 39 – 30 male, 9 female
Total number of homicide files:
- 2015: 23
- 2016: 32
- 2017: 23
- 2018: 22
- 2019: 20
- 2020: 30
- 2021: 30
- 2022 (Jan-Dec 9): 29
