Baltimore hits 300 homicides for the year

Baltimore Police say the city has hit a grim benchmark, reaching 300 homicides so far this year.

The 300th homicide of 2016 was recorded Tuesday night. Police say two men were found with gunshot wounds in northwest Baltimore and both were taken to hospitals, where one of them later died.

Last year, the city hit the 300 mark on Nov. 14.

The city broke a 44-year record in 2015 with 344 homicides. The spike in violence followed civil unrest inspired by the April 2015 death of Freddie Gray, a young African-American man whose neck was broken in the back of a police van. Authorities attributed some of the violence to crimes related to prescription drugs stolen during rioting that spring touched off by Gray’s case.

While 2016 has been slightly less violent for Baltimore, Police Commissioner Kevin Davis has said, “we’re still not where we want to be.”

Davis said that as of Monday the rate for resolving the city’s homicides was about 37 per cent.