The City of Chicago hit a deadly milestone over the Labor Day weekend — the 500th homicide of the year.
And with that tragic tally, the Windy City has now logged more homicides than New York City and Los Angeles combined — and is on pace to reach a homicide level not seen since the 1990s, the Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday.
Don't blame the cops, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said outside police headquarters Tuesday.
"It's not a police issue, it's a society issue," Johnson said after a Labor Day weekend during which 65 people were shot, 13 of them fatally. "Impoverished neighborhoods, people without hope do these kinds of things. You show me a man that doesn't have hope, I'll show you one that's willing to pick up a gun and do anything with it."
Of the 512 homicides in 2016 tallied by the Tribune, 488 fell under the jurisdiction of the Chicago Police Department, a police spokesman told NBC News.
"They're including every homicide in the city limits," Officer Jose Estrada said of the Tribune report. "Some of those are covered by other law enforcement agencies, so we don't count those."
The Chicago Police also don't count what they deem "justifiable homicides," which for example is when one person fatally shoots another in self-defense, said Estrada.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
