Chicago suffered its most violent day in almost 60 years when 18 people were killed as rioting and looting broke out amid the George Floyd protests.
The fatalities figure on Sunday 31 May was the highest on record according to the University of Chicago Crime Lab, which has been tracking the data since 1961.
Among those reportedly killed was a man paying his cell phone bill, a high school student and a visitor from Washington DC seeing his family for the weekend.
Intense pressure on police resources as the protests turned violent could be one factor, with 65,000 calls being made to 911 emergency services that day – 50,000 more than usual.
The spike also contrasts with a longer-term trend of declining killings in the city, with the number of total murders in 2019 around a third lower than 2016. Community leaders, law enforcement and the researchers who monitor the data have all expressed shock at the number of fatalities.
Read more via The Guardian
