The city of Kent had seven homicides in 2018, the most among South King County cities.
The King County Medical Examiner’s Office released on Feb. 18 its annual report for 2018, the latest numbers available. Right behind Kent were Renton and Burien with six homicides each, according to the report. Federal Way, Tukwila and Auburn each had three homicides.
Kent (129,737 population) is the third largest city in King County behind Seattle (766,893) and Bellevue (146,773), according to worldpopulationreview.com. The population of other South County cities include Renton (103,527), Federal Way (101,917) and Auburn (79,215)
The Medical Examiner’s Office 2018 Annual Report reflects the activities pertaining to the investigation of deaths in King County. In 2018, there were an estimated 14,796 deaths in the county. Of those deaths, 7,358 (50%) were reported to the Medical Examiner’s Office. Deaths occurring in a hospital or hospice setting from a known natural disease process are not required to be reported to the Medical Examiner’s Office. The Medical Examiner’s Office assumed jurisdiction over 2,576 deaths, performing autopsies in cases of homicides, suicides, traffic deaths, accidental deaths, natural deaths and deaths due to undetermined causes.
Deaths are classified as accident (non-traffic), traffic, homicide, suicide and undetermined.
Renton had the most deaths in South County with 83. Kent ranked second with 79. Kent’s deaths included 33 by accident, 14 by traffic accident, seven by homicide, 20 by suicide and five undetermined. Kent had 5.4 percent of the deaths in the county.
Seattle’s 543 deaths (including 44 homicides) had 37.3 percent of the total. Bellevue had 52 deaths and zero homicides.
The Medical Examiner’s Office performed autopsies in 57 percent of the jurisdictional deaths. In 2018, these included 95 homicides, 395 suicides, 164 traffic deaths, 818 accidental deaths, 1,003 natural deaths and 61 deaths due to undetermined causes.
Of the 14 deaths of children (ages 0-3) investigated by the medical examiner, 11 were infants under 1 year old. Of those 11 infants who died of natural causes, four were due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and six were classified as Sudden Unexplained Infant Death, manner undetermined due to the inability to exclude external factors that might have contributed to the death.
Of the deaths investigated by the medical examiner in the county, 1,641 (69 percent) were male and 762 (31 percent) were female. A total of 79 percent were white, 9.8 percent African American, 7.9 percent Asian/Pacific Islander, 1.7 percent American Indian/Alaska Native and 1.6 percent other.
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