This has been a safer year for young people in Milwaukee, at least so far.
Youth homicides in Milwaukee have declined from eight at this time last year to four in 2026, Milwaukee County health officials announced on June 24, citing data from the Medical College of Wisconsin’s Violence Response Public Health and Safety Team.
David Muhammad, the county’s Department of Health and Human Services deputy director, credited the county’s violence prevention work and cooperation with community organizations as reasons for the decline.
“None of this happens because of one program, or one organization, or even just one government agency,” Muhammad said at a press conference announcing the county’s new violence prevention campaign on June 24. “It happens because Milwaukee has built something bigger… A new workforce of people focused on healing rather than punishment and enforcement.”
At the same time, the number of non-fatal shootings of minors has increased from 25 at this point in 2025 to 29 this year, Dr. Constance Kostelac from the Medical College team said.
The data, which are based on MPD incident reports, reflect only a small decline in the total number of youth homicides, but the change is significant, Kostelac said.
“We are seeing decreases across almost every category through the first almost half of the year, in addition to the decreases we saw last year,” she said. “It’s a substantial change.”
The total number of homicides citywide has also declined from 64 at this point in 2025 to 49 in 2026 by June 8, MPD data show. Total non-fatal shootings citywide have declined from 258 at this point in 2025 to 189 in 2026.
Murders of young adults between 18 and 24 have remained constant at seven fatal incidents this year. Domestic violence incidents have also remained constant at nine homicides.
But there is still a lot of work to do to prevent youth violence in Milwaukee, County Executive David Crowley acknowledged.
“We can’t take our foot off the gas when it comes down to the successes that we have already made,” Crowley said at the press conference. “So while we can point to the positive numbers that we’ve seen, we know that we want to see those numbers come down even more, and even quicker.”
The Violence Response Public Health and Safety Team coordinates violence prevention efforts between medical professionals, local government agencies, and community organizations. It updates its analysis of MPD data every two weeks.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee youth homicides on decline so far in 2026
Reporting by Zachary Suri, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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By Zachary Suri, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
