TOLEDO — Toledo homicides fell to 22 during the first nine months of 2026, down from 30 during the same period in 2025 — a decrease of about 27 percent — according to the city’s third-quarter crime report presented Nov. 2.

But the number of people shot in the city rose over the same period. A total of 134 people were shot from January through September 2026, up from 113 in the first nine months of 2025, an increase of nearly 19 percent.

Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz and new Police Chief Kevin Braun presented the figures Nov. 2 at Toledo police headquarters. The briefing was Braun’s first crime briefing as chief. He took over the department Nov. 1, after Chief Mike Troendle retired.

The figures present a mixed picture for the first three quarters of the year: homicides fell by eight compared with the same period last year, while the number of people shot rose by 21.

The homicide decline amounts to about 27 percent — 22 homicides in the first nine months of 2026, compared with 30 in the first nine months of 2025. The increase in shootings amounts to nearly 19 percent — 134 people shot in the first nine months of 2026, compared with 113 in the same period in 2025.

Braun presented the third-quarter statistics one day after taking over as police chief. Troendle retired, and Braun assumed leadership of the department Nov. 1. The Nov. 2 briefing at police headquarters was his first presentation of the city’s crime figures in the role.

The third-quarter figures cover Jan. 1 through Sept. 30, 2026, and the corresponding period in 2025. They do not include the final three months of 2026. The city’s year-end crime numbers, which will provide a full-year comparison with 2025, are expected in late January or early February.

The figures presented Nov. 2 are the city’s third-quarter crime statistics. Kapszukiewicz and Braun presented the homicide and shooting totals as part of that update at Toledo police headquarters.

The third-quarter update was presented at Toledo police headquarters, where Kapszukiewicz and Braun discussed the figures. The homicide and shooting totals in the report cover the first nine months of the year, allowing a direct comparison with the same nine-month period in 2025.

For more detail on the figures presented Nov. 2, see coverage from 13abc, the Fostoria Free Press and Lake Erie Inquiry.

Featured image: The downtown Toledo skyline along the Maumee River in July 2022. Photo by MrJacon000, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).