Los Angeles has reached 300 homicides for the first time in a decade, police department officials said Sunday.
The grim milestone comes as the city – like many others nationwide – continues to grapple with the Covid-19 pandemic and all the social and economic fallout.
“A number we have not seen in over a decade—300 homicides in a year,” the department tweeted. “Senseless violence & tragic loss of life. “Our people are doing everything they can to stop the violence, but we need your help. If you have any info, report it. You can remain anonymous.”
The number is an increase from the 257 homicides reported in 2019, LAPD told CNN.
The latest death this year, the shooting of a 17-year-old boy who was riding a motorcycle near his house, struck the deputy chief particularly hard.
“I am HEARTBROKEN!!” Deputy Chief Emada E. Tingirides said on Twitter. “It’s has been a tragic weekend in Los Angeles to include the murder of a 17 year old riding his motorcycle close to his home.”
“A Weekend like this creates Lasting Trauma in Communities. Praying for South Los Angeles,” Tingirides added.
Other cities across the US have also seen an increase in homicides and shooting incidents over the last year.
Louisville, Kentucky, reached a record 121 murders in September. The number of homicides is the most the city has ever seen, according to statistics from the Louisville Metro Police Department.
LMPD Lt. Donny Burbink told CNN in September that the record number of murders had strained the homicide unit’s ability to investigate each incident, with arrests made in only 37 of those homicides at the time of the interview.
“It’s basically to the point where we’re not being able to provide victims’ families the proper investigative services that we would like to, and it’s really unfortunate,” said Burbink. “We’re hoping that sooner or later, things start calming down so our victims’ families can actually get some of the answers that they want.”
Shooting incidents in New York City are also on the rise this year, with more than a 100% increase in 2020 from 2019, data from the New York City Police Department shows.
NYPD data shows that there have been 1,667 shootings with victims in 2020 compared to 828 last year. There were also 1,359 shooting incidents reported this year compared to 698 reported in 2019, according to the statistics shared by the department.
Murder is also up in NYC this year by 37%, with 405 murders reported in 2020 while 2019 saw 295 murders, the stats show.
In Minneapolis, increases in crimes, such as robbery, increased by more than 50% since last year.
The shortage in officers meant more than 6,000 “priority one” 911 calls, which include sexual assault, shootings and robberies, were made in the period of a year for which police didn’t have an officer immediately able to respond, Minneapolis Police spokesman John Elder said in an email to CNN in September.
“Those calls did not get immediately dispatch police resources because we did not have staff available to respond,” Elder said.
