Four months ago, Francois Mitchell, 25, became Buffalo’s 55th homicide of 2009.

Tuesday, his half brother, Dontae E. Coble, 16, was accused of committing the city’s seventh homicide of this year.

The cycle of violence in this family doesn’t end there.

A cousin of Mitchell and Coble was the city’s 29th homicide victim in 2007. Rome Ward had been shot, and three of his fingers severed. His badly decomposed body was found in the basement of a vacant house.

“Their mother has already lost one son, and now a second son will spend a substantial amount of time in prison,” Detective Sgt. Daniel Rinaldo said at a news conference Tuesday, announcing that Coble had been charged with second-degree murder in the Feb. 13 stabbing of Daniel Smalls, 18, of Lisbon Avenue.

Interim Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda said Coble was 15 when he allegedly killed Smalls at about 11 p. m. outside a party in the 2200 block of Genesee Street. Coble turned 16 on Thursday.

Mayor Byron W. Brown, who was on hand for Tuesday’s announcement, noted that three of the city’s eight homicides this year have now been solved.

In one of those cases, the mayor said, a surveillance camera played an instrumental role in solving the Jan. 28 strangulation of Lincoln Burks, 72, in his Cornwall Avenue apartment. He was the city’s fifth homicide this year.

Without giving specific details about the camera images, the mayor and police said enough evidence was available to ultimately obtain a confession from April Stone, 33, of Bakos Boulevard, an acquaintance of Burks, whom she robbed, police said. Stone was charged with second-degree murder and second-degree robbery.

While the camera helped in that case, Brown said there is no replacement for trained police officers on the beat, which proved to be the case in the Smalls stabbing.

A quick response from officers in Ferry-Fillmore and the Northeast districts, along with assistance from Mobile Response Unit members, succeeded in containing more than 20 potential witnesses who were at the party.

Rinaldo said every member of the homicide squad was called in to interview the witnesses. It paid off. On Monday, Coble was found hiding in an upper apartment in the 300 block of Herman Street, where he lives.

Rinaldo credited homicide Detectives Michael Acquino, Michael A. Mordino, Mary E. Gugliuzza and Noreen E. Walsh with the arrest.

Brown said breaking the cycle of violence also requires follow- up help for victims. “Once a person has become a victim of violence, the percentages increase of that happening again to the person,” he said.

The mayor added that Assemblywoman Crystal D. Peoples-Stokes, D-Buffalo, has been working with different institutions and agencies that come in contact with victims of violence to assist them. “It’s violence prevention strategy,” he said.