DeKalb police again worked a record number of homicides in 2020

Jireh Morris was 30 years old, a quiet, handsome guy with a soft spot for his nieces and nephews. He was pursuing a nursing degree and working as a phlebotomist, one of the folks that draws blood at the doctor’s office.

Then came the pandemic. Morris was laid off and living with his mom, picking up odd jobs while looking for steady work.

Morris eventually reconnected with an estranged cousin — the same person that, according to authorities, would shoot him five times on a chilly December night and turn him into a grim statistic: one of the record 128 homicides investigated by DeKalb County police in 2020.

Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@

Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@

In communities across metro Atlanta and throughout the rest of the United States, 2020 was a turbulent and violent year. The Atlanta Police Department saw 157 homicides, an increase of 58% over 2019 and the city’s highest total in decades. To the east of DeKalb, Gwinnett County went from 30 homicides in 2019 to 48 last year, a spike of 60%.

Nationally, preliminary FBI data showed that homicides were up 21% through the first nine months of 2020.

In that context, DeKalb County’s new record doesn’t look as damning. It represents just a 2.3% increase over the previous high of 125 set in 2019.

ExploreAtlanta's deadliest year in decades has city on edge and demanding change

But that’s hardly cause for celebration.

“My son cannot come back,” Janet Morris, Jireh’s mother, said recently. “I can’t touch him. I can’t talk to him. His body is over there in the ground at Hillandale Memorial Gardens.”

High tensions

In DeKalb, homicides were actually down 37% through the first half of 2020. Police chief Mirtha Ramos — who joined the department in late 2019 after a long career in Miami — wasn’t celebrating then, either, but was hopeful that initiatives like increased pay for officers and a renewed focus on community involvement were starting to make a difference.

The department now has two community policing units, folks specifically tasked with interacting with residents in non-enforcement situations. The pandemic made their work harder in some ways, but also provided opportunities: DeKalb officers have often participated in county events where food, masks and hand sanitizer are distributed to people in need.

The approaches and others initiated by Ramos may prove to be effective. The chief said she’s staying the course.

Credit: Steve Schaefer

The second half of 2020, though, was a rough one. A total of 81 homicides pushed DeKalb past the dubious mark it set in 2019.

Such things are hard to quantify. But officials in DeKalb and elsewhere say the coronavirus pandemic and the corresponding economic crisis have surely played a role in the surge of violence. Thousands of people are out of work, hungry and on the verge of being homeless.

“As the year went on, people lost their jobs, businesses closed down, the sheltering in place,” Ramos said. “I think the tension was just high. I think people are just quick to react right now.”

She said there weren’t many trends in 2020′s homicides, more than 79% of which have been cleared. But much like in other recent years, victims were often killed by people they knew.

‘My cousin’

Police found Jireh Morris outside the Artesian Village apartments off Bouldercrest Road on Dec. 5, bleeding in the driver’s seat of his car. He’d been shot in the leg, arm, stomach and chest. He’d crashed into other cars in the parking lot while trying to get away.

Morris would die on the way to the hospital. But before he left, an officer asked who’d hurt him.

“My cousin,” he said, according to an incident report. Michael Stewart, he said.

Stewart, 32, was someone with whom Morris had often shared a bedroom growing up. They’d gone together on family vacations, played baseball at Redan Park.

He was nowhere to be found when police arrived that night. Nearly two months later, he’s still missing — and wanted on murder charges.

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Janet Morris doesn’t know exactly what happened that night, or what her son had been doing with Stewart. She said she sees Stewart’s Facebook account light up from time to time, the green light in the Messenger app giving away his (or someone else’s) digital presence.

She recently sent the account a message that included a picture of Jireh in his casket. No response.

“I just want to know what happened,” Morris said. “I know what Michael did. But I don’t know why.”

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Michael Blair Stewart is asked to call the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office Fugitive at 404-298-8132 or CrimeStoppers Atlanta at 404-577-TIPS. Stewart is considered dangerous and may be armed, officials said.