Chicago has already topped its 400th case of homicide so far this year. In the weekend of Aug. 12 and 13 alone, nine people have been reportedly killed. Eight of these killings were well within a 17-hour time frame on a Sunday, which involved both double and triple homicides.

This Sunday’s violence started when a 20-year-old man was gunned down during an argument in Old Town just after midnight. Another person was fatally shot at the Back of the Yard half an hour later. An off-duty police officer has also reportedly shot an 18-year-old man during a confrontation about 5:05 a.m. The confrontation occurred at the 11100 block of South Hermosa Avenue in the Morgan Park neighborhood on the Far South Side.

After a few hours, two men were fatally shot on the steps of Friendship Baptist Church in South Austin. Later in the afternoon, a man told authorities that he gunned down three people who allegedly broke into his home on the Southeast Side. According to the police, the victims were the victims were a 17-year-old boy, a 22-year-old man and a 24-year-old woman.

According to the Chicago Tribune data, at least 2,331 people have been shot in the city so far this year. There have also been at least 432 reported cases of homicides so far in 2017, the data showed.

Chicago, other big U.S.cities see upswing in homicide cases

Data from the Major Cities Chiefs Association’s midyear crime survey revealed that Chicago still tops its list of the deadliest U.S. cities. The report also revealed that homicide cases are also on the uptick in other major metropolitan areas such as Baltimore and New Orleans. (Related: Want To Solve The Violent Shootings Problem In Chicago? Let Law-Abiding Citizens Defend Themselves With Concealed Carry.)

According to the report, more than 3,000 homicides have already been reported so far this year, which marks a 3 percent increase during the same time last year. The survey also showed that the reported cases of aggravated assault so far this year was nearly 4,000 more compared with 2016. In line with this, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recently announced that the Justice Department put programs in place to reduce gun violence and illegal drug sales and combat gangs.

“The uptick in murders is a continuation of the violent crime wave seen over the past several years. A challenging priority for the Department of Justice is dismantling the criminal gangs, which function as the street-level drug distribution networks for transnational drug cartels and fuel much of the violence in our country through turf wars and violent drug trafficking. The Department of Justice is committed to working with law enforcement partners to reduce violence — not just through grant funding — but if jurisdictions deliberately and intentionally adopt policies that are hostile to and obstruct the rule of law, they create an even more dangerous environment that will not be fixed by simply throwing more money at a lawless system,” Justice Department spokesman Drew Hudson told The Washington Times online.

Sources include:

ChicagoTribune.com

WashingtonTimes.com