Baltimore has hit 200 homicide victims in 2016 after an autopsy confirmed a 42-year-old man found dead Friday just west of downtown had been fatally stabbed.
The victim, identified Monday as Franswhaun Smith, was found Friday morning at around 7:50 a.m. in the Heritage Crossing neighborhood that was formerly the site of the Murphy Homes housing project.
Smith was pronounced dead at the scene, and police said an autopsy confirmed he had been stabbed in the back.
It is the fifth consecutive year Baltimore has crossed 200 homicide victims, after recording 197 in all of 2011. That was the first time the city had recorded fewer than 200 victims since the late 1970s.
Last year, 344 people were killed in Baltimore, the city’s highest per capita rate ever.