Chicago sees 139% jump in murders, uptick in shootings in July 2020: police

Murders more than doubled last month in Chicago compared to the same month last year, according to new data released by Chicago police.

Shootings also increased compared July 2019.

Still, police reported that overall crime in the city has decreased so far this year.

The 105 murders reported in July are a nearly 139% increase from the 44 reported in July 2019, according to police data released Saturday. The 406 shooting incidents last month were a 75% increase from the 232 reported in the same month-to-month comparison.

The Sun-Times reported 106 homicides across the city in July, bringing the total number of homicide cases this year to 430 as of Friday night.

Murders are up 51% from the same point last year, along with a 47% increase in shootings, police said.

Last month, 573 people were shot in the city — at least 58 of them juveniles, including a 9-year-old boy killed by gunfire Friday night as he played outside on the Near North Side, according to Sun-Times records.

The month’s youngest shooting victim was a 3-year-old girl who was struck July 22 while riding in her family’s car in South Shore.

A day before that, the city saw the largest mass shooting in recent memory when 15 people were shot outside a funeral home in Gresham on the South Side.

The month opened with a bloody Fourth of July weekend that saw 79 people shot across the city, 15 of them fatally.

Eleven of the holiday weekend’s victims were minors, and two of them — 13-year-old Amaria Jones and 7-year-old Natalia Wallace — were killed.

Three Chicago police officers were wounded when a man in custody opened fire Thursday morning at the Grand Central District police station in Austin with a gun he had allegedly kept hidden when he was arrested.

One officer was shot in the shoulder, another was struck in their ballistic vest and a third was struck in the hip.

Officers returned fire, striking 25-year-old Lovelle Jordan, who faces attempted murder charges.

On July 8, the police department announced a new citywide unit of officers to help combat the surge in violence this year.

“As we continue moving more officers into the districts and closer to our communities, we have also been focused on creating teams that can address violent crime head-on within our most vulnerable neighborhoods,” CPD Supt. David Brown said. “Our officers will engage directly with residents. We will hear their concerns, and continue to work in partnership with them as part of an all-hands-on-deck effort to curb the violence in our communities.”

Officers have seized more than 5,600 illegal guns and made 3,700 gun arrests so far this year — a 5% increase from the same time last year, police said.

Overall crime — a category including murders, sexual assaults, robberies, burglaries and vehicle thefts — had decreased 9% year-to-date, police said.

Read more on crime, and track the city’s homicides.