By the start of July 2023, 16 people had been killed across Anne Arundel County in 13 separate events — all but one of which were shootings. That number was driven, in part, by two shootings with multiple victims, including a triple homicide last June that was the deadliest act of violence in Annapolis in several years.

As of Friday, seven people have been killed in the county this year, four since June 14.

Even so, homicides are not as frequent in Anne Arundel County as in many similar-sized areas. According to the most recent data from the Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention, Youth, and Victim Services, of the five most populated jurisdictions in Maryland, including Baltimore City, Anne Arundel had the lowest number of murders in 2022, with 16. The next highest was Montgomery County which, with over 400,000 more residents, had 23.

The heightened violence at the onset of summer in Anne Arundel is consistent with trends across the country involving firearms.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, which catalogues mass shootings involving four or more victims, dead or alive, the months of June, July and August have seen the most incidents over the last 10 years.

Experts attribute the spike to a number of factors, including hot weather.

Research suggests increased body temperature, heart rate and blood pressure can make people respond to situations more quickly and aggressively.

Studies have linked higher temperatures to retaliation and more hit-by-pitcher batters in Major League Baseball games, as well as more penalties for aggression in National Football League games. Others have considered whether the heat makes police officers more likely to shoot criminal suspects, finding results for and against the hypothesis.

“Higher temperatures increase one’s discomfort which can increase the risk that an interaction will become agitated and turn into a confrontation,” said Dr. Bianca Bersani, a criminologist and associate professor at the University of Maryland.

Some researchers, including Dr. Suat Cubuckcu at Towson University, see temperature more as a correlating factor with rising crime rates than a cause of them.

But criminologists say many of the social factors and events summer brings, like holidays, cookouts and family gatherings, increase the chances of violence because “violence is interactional,” Bersani said. For instance, Independence Day is historically one of the deadliest days of the year, leaving at least 33 people dead in 2024 and dozens more injured nationwide.

“It doesn’t create more motivation,” Cubucku said. “It just creates more opportunities.”

Another characteristic of the summer season that creates problems, the Towson professor said, is a lack of control.

Children, for instance, are out of school and more likely to be without supervision. Unstructured and unsupervised time, research has shown, is linked to risky behavior. Also, at parties and vacations, more alcohol is consumed, causing people to react more emotionally than rationally, he said.

“It doesn’t mean in summer we have more criminals,” Cubukcu said. “There is less social control and self-control.”

This year, police in Anne Arundel County and Annapolis have investigated seven homicides. In three, suspects have been arrested and charged while county detectives look to make arrests in the remaining four. The one homicide investigation handled by Annapolis Police so far this year ended with three people being charged.

On July 1, Jasmen Wilkerson was stabbed in Brooklyn Park after an argument with an unidentified man, according to police. Wilkerson, 47, was taken to the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, where she later died from her injuries.

Wikerson’s death was the second homicide in two days within two blocks of Ritchie Highway.

On June 29, Joshua Holland was shot and dumped from a car at the intersection of Route 2 and Orchard Avenue, witnesses told police. The 34-year-old man from Curtis Bay died after being taken to Shock Trauma. Though an arrest has not been made, police located the suspected vehicle about a mile away.

Holland was the third county resident killed in June.

Isaiah Oludayo Olugbemi was shot in the ReNew Odenton apartment community on June 17. Alive when first responders arrived, the 27-year-old boxer died at Shock Trauma. The next day, police arrested Nicholas Francis Xavier Giroux, 36, who lived in the area. Giroux confessed to the killing, police said, before leading detectives to the handgun he used.

Days earlier, on the evening of June 14, Keion McKinney, was shot and killed in the backyard of a Severn townhome. The 34-year-old, who was known by his friends and family as Rico, was pronounced dead at the scene. In their preliminary investigation, police said they were looking for a man but have not made an arrest.

Before June, three people were killed throughout Anne Arundel County. Each homicide took place between January and March, and two were on the same day.

On the morning of March 28, Annapolis Police officers found the body of David Winchester Jr. in a wooded area near the track at Wiley H. Bates Middle School. Winchester, a Baltimore resident known as Duke, was kidnapped and brought to Annapolis, where he was shot in the middle school parking lot, police said. According to his family, Winchester was a father of 10 and a grandfather of six.

Three people — Jamar Fincher, Monae Fincher, and Marquis Mayo, all from Baltimore — were arrested days later. The Finchers were previously married, police said, and Jamar Fincher was released from prison three weeks before the killing.

On March 28, several hours after Winchester’s body was discovered, police found Tommy Lee Williams Jr. inside a vehicle in Crofton suffering from a gunshot wound to the torso. Williams, a 43-year-old resident of Capitol Heights, was an entertainer known as DJ Tommy Stylez. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Tyrese Malik Williams, a 20-year-old from Brooklyn Park, was shot outside his home March 4 by several people, police said. That night, with the assistance of a helicopter unit from the Baltimore Police Department, Anne Arundel police detained five people in Baltimore’s Edgecomb neighborhood.

Two of them, Dabron Johnson and Decouisey Wilson, both teenagers from Baltimore, were charged with Williams’ murder, the first this year in Anne Arundel County.

Anyone with information on any of this year’s homicide cases is asked to call the Anne Arundel Police tip line at 410-222-4700 or Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-756-2587. Metro Crime Stoppers can also be reached through its website, metrocrimestoppers.org.