Chicago’s homicide rate continues to rise and threatens to eclipse even the most deadly year in the city’s history, when 970 people were slain in 1974.
Through Friday morning, police reported 476 slayings, 109 more than the same period last year and more than any other year for the same period. In 1974, there were 431 killings in the first half of the year, according to police records.
The 1994 numbers included four victims found under grisly circumstances late Thursday. Firefighters called to a car fire in a vacant lot at 2832 W. Madison St. discovered the bodies inside the burning vehicle.
The throats of three of the victims had been slashed, and the fourth had been shot in the head, according to Harrison Area Detective Cmdr. John Kozaritz.
“From the viciousness of the crime, it was apparent that they were sending a message to someone,” Kozaritz said, describing the circumstances as indicating problems involving a drug operation.
The shooting victim, who was found handcuffed in the back seat of the car, had not been identified late Friday afternoon.
The other three, who were found in the trunk of the 1984 Chevrolet Caprice, were identified as Raul Perez Negron, 31, of the 3100 block of West Diversey Avenue; Roman Escobar, 26; and Dagoberto Padilla, 28.
Escobar and Padilla had arrived separately in the Chicago area from California in recent weeks and were staying with Escobar’s brother in Elgin, Kozaritz said.
He said it appeared that the car had been driven to the West Side location after the victims were slain. “We have not been able to establish where they were killed,” he said.
Because at least two of the victims had recently arrived from out of state and because of the circumstances of their deaths, police enlisted the help of the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Although Chicago homicide numbers are on the rise, as are the numbers in St. Louis, where 122 people have been slain, an increase of 14 over the same period of 1993, police in several other large cities are reporting declines.
In Los Angeles, for example, homicides are down to 366, compared with 467 in the same period last year.
More Top Picks Best New Balance Shoes For Men
In Miami, there have been 104 slayings this year, a decline from 116 in the same period in 1993; Baltimore has shown a significant drop in homicides, with 140 so far this year, 32 fewer than the same period last year; and in Washington, D.C., there have been 195 slayings this year, 15 fewer than a year earlier.
The proliferation of guns has clearly played a major role in violent deaths in Chicago. So far this year, 74 percent of the homicides have been committed with guns, records show. Just five years ago, the percentage of Chicago homicides committed with guns was 58 percent.
Meanwhile, the ages of both the victims and those charged with murder have dropped steadily. For example, in 1989, there were 288 people in the 21-to-30 age group charged with murder, nearly the same as the 283 in the 11-to-20 age group.
By 1993, 270 in the 21-to-30 age group were charged with murder, while the number of young offenders jumped to 371.
At the same time, the ages of victims grew younger. In 1989, there were 149 homicide victims in the 11-to-20 age group, a number that jumped to 245 last year.