Rhamaland: 435th Homicide Equals Total For All Of Last Year

CBS Chicago reports:

A man was shot and killed inside a home late Sunday on the South Side, marking the city’s 435th homicide of the year — equaling the total last year.

Bariffe Fitz, 68, was found shot in the chest about 11 p.m. inside a residence in the 9400 block of South La Salle Street.

“It’s a disappointing milestone,” Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said on the CBS 2 Morning News. “You can’t manage this and you can’t talk about murder in a positive fashion.”

While murders in Chicago will easily exceed last year’s total, the murder rate has been declining since April 1, when police began to initiate new gang-fighting strategies, McCarthy said. The numbers are high because of a big spike in violence in the first three months of the year, McCarthy said.

One of those gang-fighting components includes denying individual recognizance bonds to gang members. So far, 5,500 I bonds have been denied to keep gang members in jail while police work to investigate crimes.

Over the weekend, six people were killed and 14 wounded.