LITTLE Rock, Arkansas. A body found this morning in an abandoned building marks the beginning of the first murder investigation in Little Rock in four weeks.

According to the Little Rock Police Department, just before 7:30 a.m., someone called the agency and said the body was in a vacant building that used to be a pizzeria located on McMath Drive, between Interstate 30 and MacArthur Park.

On Monday morning, crime scene tape surrounded the area where Little Rock Police homicide detectives were working. It was a few feet from where Brittany Garner and her son went to play.

“You just think you’re going to a nice park and then it gets frustrating,” Garner said as she watched police leave the scene.

Officers were unable to establish the full extent of the man’s injuries, which could have led to his death. Including Monday, the city has recorded seven homicides in 2023, nearly half of the 12 recorded as of March 6, 2022.

The latest weekly crime statistics provided by the police until February 7, 2023 showed a decrease in the total number of Violent Crimes in the capital by 13% compared to 2022.

This trend extends to the largest cities of the country. Police reports show homicide rates are down 17% year-to-date in New York, 18% in Chicago and 33% in Los Angeles.

Looking at cities the size of Little Rock, Birmingham has fallen 35%, rising from 20 murders in 2022 to 13 in 2023. .

This decrease is of little comfort to Robert Pelegrin, who lives on the street where Little Rock’s suspicious death recently took place.

“I think we will see what the cause of death is, but in any case, there will definitely be an eerie feeling in this area,” Pelegrin said.

Both he and Garner urge people to keep an eye on their surroundings so that their area does not become a playground for criminals.

“When you see it in the background, it makes you think twice,” Garner said.

Police have not released the identity of the victim at this time. No arrests have been reported. Police have sent the body to the state crime lab and are awaiting results by the end of the week.

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