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GREENSBORO — Twenty-three homicide cases. Twenty-five victims.

The youngest was 6. The oldest was 54.

In High Point, police investigated three new homicides in 2011. Guilford County sheriff’s investigators, six.

Most of the Greensboro victims were young black males. Most of the slayings occurred in the southeastern part of Greensboro.

A few homicides strayed from the norm.

Greensboro police investigated two domestic violence shootings in 2011.

On May 27, police say Noah Adams, 32, shot and killed ex-girlfriend Christina Maxa-Gross, 33, in her town house. He then turned the gun on himself.

Maxa-Gross’ son, then 9 years old, called 911 from inside the town house to report the incident. He heard the adults arguing and entered his mother’s bedroom to see her and Adams bleeding on the floor.

“We have so many new cases on our wall of remembrance — of people who should have been here,” said Portia Shipman, the founder and executive director of the three-year-old Sherri Denese Jackson Foundation for the Prevention of Domestic Violence.

The awareness and advocacy nonprofit provides workshops for teens on safe dating and others to empower women in abusive relationships, in remembrance of Jackson, who was too embarrassed and ashamed to talk about her abusive boyfriend before she disappeared in 2006.

DeCarlo Bennett pleaded guilty nearly two years later to second-degree murder in Jackson’s death in exchange for telling investigators where he buried the body.

“We have got to make domestic violence a top priority in 2012,” Shipman said. “This year, in our own community, we have seen multiple cases with multiple victims. No one is safe. It spills outward. And, it seems to be getting worse.”

In July, police say a man fatally shot his 6-year-old son, his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend and a family friend. Hoanh Rcom, 34, faces several charges, including first-degree murder. Rcom shot two others who survived, including his ex-girlfriend, authorities say.

Guilford County sheriff’s deputies also investigated a mass shooting that rattled the Pleasant Garden community. 

In November, authorities said, Mary Ann Holder, 36, shot to death her two sons, a niece, a nephew and her son’s girlfriend before claiming her own life. She also wounded her ex-boyfriend that day, police said.

For the Greensboro Police Department, the number of slayings in 2011 bucks the three-year decline the city saw from 2007 to 2010.

Police reported 25 homicides in 2008 and 18 in 2009.

On Aug. 9, Greensboro surpassed the number of homicides for the entire year of 2010 — 16.

What caused the rise? Police said they can’t pinpoint a single reason.

The numbers fluctuate from year to year, but 25 homicide victims is within the 10-year average, said Greensboro Assistant Chief Dwight Crotts.

Officers have cleared most of the 23 cases by identifying or arresting at least one suspect. Police are still investigating seven cases.

Here is a list of active homicide cases from 2011:

• Feb. 5: John Christopher Shaw Hewett, 25, was shot several times at 1802-D Maplewood Lane. Police believe Hewett had been struggling with a resident of the apartment.
• April 15: Trumain Lamont “Tank” Allred, 23, was shot at 504 Andrew St., and a second man was wounded.
• April 23: Trevor “T.J.” Todd Jr., 20, was shot at Pear and Moody streets after a disturbance at a party. The former Page High School football player attended Johnson & Wales in Charlotte.
• May 5: Jeffrey Sentell Alston, 29, was found inside a car at Tuscaloosa and Pearson streets when officers went to investigate a report of gunshots.
• Oct. 15: Donovan Ja-twann McCall, 21, of York, S.C., was shot at 824 Circle Drive.
• Dec. 23: Jerome Alphonso Page, 45, was shot at 2019 Willow Road, Apt. 2H.
• Dec. 24: Police found Christopher Brian Mason, 28, dead from an apparent gunshot wound at 300 Charles St.

Police were doing a welfare check on Mason after he didn’t show up for his midnight shift at Greensboro College, where he was a security guard.

Anyone with any information about these cases is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 373-1000.

Contact Dioni L. Wise at 373-7090 or dioni.wise@news-record.com