BY MICHAEL LANSU
Homicide Watch Chicago Editor
Chicago had nine more murders and 101 more shooting victims in April 2014 than it did in April 2013 — raising the city’s murder total to 95 through the first four months of the year, police said.
Despite the bloody month, the city has tallied only two more murders this year than it did through the same period last year, a 1 percent increase, police said. The 95 slayings are a 38 percent decrease compared to to the unusually violent 2012, when 154 people were killed in the first months of the year.
Police said 2014 has had the second fewest killings through the first four months of the year since 1959, with only 2013 seeing fewer slayings.
Of the 33 Chicago murders in April, eight of the deceased were under the age of 18 — including three 16-year-olds and three 17-year-olds.
Of Chicago’s 77 official community areas, Austin and South Lawndale had the most murders last month with three. Two of the murders in South Lawndale happened in once shooting when Juan Ocon and Timmy Bermudez were gunned down on Easter Sunday.
In addition to murders being up, the city saw an increase in April shooting victims. Police reported 267 people were shot in April 2014, up from 166 last year and 214 in 2012.
Overall, 565 people have been shot in the first four months of 2014 — a 3 percent decrease from last year and a 31 percent decrease from 2012, police said.
“We will continue building on our comprehensive violence reduction strategy, putting more officers in high-crime areas, using new tools to proactively intervene in gang conflicts and developing stronger relationships with community leaders, all of which is backed by the city’s strengthened investments in prevention programs for at-risk youth,” Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said in a statement.
The medical examiner’s office has ruled 108 Chicago deaths in 2014 a homicide through April 2014 — including five people killed by police.
Additionally, the state’s attorney’s office filed first-degree murder charges against a speeding motorist who killed an off-duty police officer while trying to flee police even though the autopsy ruled the death an accident.
Chicago Police, which counts murders different, have ruled eight of the homicides as involuntary manslaughter, justified self-defense or accidents.