Chicago Tops 600 Homicides for Second Year in a Row

Shooting deaths are down across Chicago in 2017 after last year’s unexpected spike, but this week the city homicide totals crossed another grim milestone.

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Three shooting deaths have been recorded so far this week, pushing the city beyond 600 total homicides for the second consecutive year, according to data maintained by the Chicago Tribune.

Though Chicago’s 600th homicide occurred later this year than last, when that figure was reached in mid-October, this marks only the second year since 2003 that Chicago has crossed this threshold.

The Tribune data puts the city’s current total at 602 homicides as of Wednesday morning. More than 3,200 people have been shot in Chicago this year, from Jan. 1 through Sunday.

On Monday, 27-year-old Devon Thomas was shot multiple times and died inside an apartment on the 6900 block of South Prairie Avenue.

Three men were shot Tuesday afternoon on the 500 block of South Lockwood Avenue on the West Side. One was pronounced dead at the scene while the others were transported to the hospital and listed as stable, according to the Chicago Police Department.

The incedent became the 18th recorded homicide in Chicago this month, Tribune data states. Last November saw 80 homicides.

A 28-year-old man was taken to the hospital in critical condition Wednesday evening after being shot multiple times in Gage Park. A 26-year-old was shot in the face while sitting in a vehicle in the Chatham neighborhood later that night. He was transported to Stroger Hospital and listed as stable.

Chicago recorded more than 760 homicides last year, according to FBI data, well above the 2015 total of 478. Violent crimes also jumped from 24,663 in 2015 to more than 30,000 last year.

Through the end of October this year, shootings are down more than 18 percent over 2016 and homicides are down 10 percent.

The Police Department has pointed to its expansion of Strategic Decision Support Centers as being at least partially responsible for those declines. In districts where those centers are implemented, shootings are down 23 percent compared to 2016 and homicides are down 17 percent, outpacing overall city numbers.

Contact Matt Masterson: @ByMattMasterson[email protected] | (773) 509-5431


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