CHICAGO (AP) - The county that includes Chicago has recorded more than 900 homicides this year, marking the first time since 2016 and just the second time in nearly a quarter century that the 900 mark has been reached.
In a news release, the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office said that as of Nov. 30 there were 902 confirmed homicides between Jan. 1 and Nov. 30, compared to 675 homicides in the county in all of 2019.
The vast majority of the homicides were in Chicago, where the police department on Tuesday announced that the 58 homicides in November had brought the total for the year to 716.
Gun violence has continued to plague Chicago in recent years, with far more gun deaths in the city than any other city in the United States, so it is not surprising that the vast majority of homicide victims in the Cook County were shot to death. According to the medical examiner’s office, shooting incidents account for 810 of those deaths.
Also not surprising, given that the vast majority of homicides in Chicago have occurred in predominantly minority communities, the medical examiner’s office reported that 78% of the homicide victims were Black and 16% were Latino.
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