BY MICHAEL LANSU
Homicide Watch Chicago Editor
Chicago Police reported a 6 percent decrease in murder through the first 10 months of 2014 compared to the same time period last year.
The 33 October murders tied 2013 for the fewest in the month since 1965, said police spokesman Martin Maloney.
Those murders raised the yearly total to 331 killings — 22 fewer than the first 10 months of 2013, and 105 less over the same period in the unusually violent 2012, police said.
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BY WILL HAGER
For Homicide Watch Chicago
After an increase in gun violence over the recent Fourth of July and Labor Day holiday weekends, should Chicago residents expect another surge in violence with Halloween falling on a Friday?
Since 2007, Chicago has seen an increase in killings on Halloween compared with the average number of slayings during any given day in October, according to data from the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
During that time, there have been a total of 16 killings on Halloween, and another seven in the early morning hours of Nov. 1, according to the medical examiner’s office data. On any October day since 2007, an average of about 1.25 people were killed each day.
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BY KALEY FOWLER
Homicide Watch Chicago
While murders in Chicago have been steadily declining for nearly 25 years, those getting killed has remained relatively unchanged.
Chicago Police reported 928 murders in 1991 — and nearly 36 percent of the deceased were between the ages of 17 and 25, according to police data.
By 2000, the total number of murders in Chicago had decreased to 633, according to police data. Nearly 43 percent of the victims were between 17 and 25.
In 2013, the Cook County medical examiner’s office reported 441 homicides, and nearly 42 percent were between 17 and 25 years old.
Since 1991, the 17 to 25 age group has been the greatest percentage of murder victims every single year.
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A man found dead in a garbage bin in the Jefferson Park neighborhood Tuesday morning was beaten and strangled.
A janitor at Northwestern Business College found the body in a school garbage bin in the 4800 block of North Lipps Avenue about 11:45 p.m. Tuesday, according to a police report and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
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An unidentified teenager police found shot in the head on a Gage Park street has died.
Officers found the teen lying in the street in the 5400 block of South Talman Avenue about 9:20 p.m. Saturday, authorities said.
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BY MICHAEL LANSU AND KALEY FOWLER
Homicide Watch Chicago
Chicago Police reported a 7 percent decrease in murders compared to the first nine months of last year — and 25 percent decrease from 2012.
Forty-one September killings raised the 2014 murder total to 298, down from the 320 through September 2013 and 400 through September 2012, police said.
The Cook County medical examiner’s office has ruled at least 326 Chicago deaths in 2014 a homicide — including 12 people killed by police.
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Cortez Rivers, 16, was fatally shot early Saturday in the West Garfield Park neighborhood.Reader “NP11124” posted this about him:
Please do not mistake this young man as a statistic or kid who was out there doing evil deeds. He was a very sweet and respectable person, he went to school everyday, passing all of his classes and had plans for his future and he didn’t deserve to die like a dog in the streets. Him being out at that time of night was a mistake, but he was not and never has lived the evil life as you say. Please don’t presume to know his story just by looking at his picture and reading a news article because YOU WILL BE WRONG. The family especially his mother is having a difficult time dealing with this because he wasn’t THAT TYPE OF KID so have some respect and learn the facts before you pass judgement as you are not God and I’m more than positive that he lived his life well enough for the heavenly father to welcome him with open arms into Heaven.
Police Supt. Garry McCarthy discusses crime stats / Photo by Brian Jackson
BY MICHAEL LANSU
Homicide Watch Chicago Editor
Chicago Police announced Monday that August murders declined for the third consecutive year.
Police reported 46 murders in August, an 8 percent decrease from the 50 killings in 2013 and a 16 percent decrease from the 55 slayings in 2012. There were only 35 murders in August 2011.
Despite the decrease in killings, the number of shooting incidents and shooting victims remained about the same.
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BY MICHAEL LANSU
Homicide Watch Chicago Editor
When the weather is nice, Ehrick Harper likes to sit outside of the Chatham Great Choice apparel store where he works.
Harper, 38, knows the store is on a particularly violent stretch of East 79th Street, but says he makes the two-hour commute from the West Side because he needs work.
“I have to feel safe — it’s my job,” Harper says with a smile as he glances over his right shoulder at his co-worker.
The store closes at 7 p.m., and residents say the bustling commercial strip near Cottage Grove changes for the worse at night, just in time for Harper’s bus trip home.
“You put too many people in a [bad] situation and it reaches a boiling point,” Harper said. “When there is no economic structure for people, they tend to stray or they try and make something out of nothing. That means violence, or whatever they need to do to get it cracking, as they say on 79th.”Read more
