CHICAGO — More than 1,000 people have been shot in Chicago this year, the earliest the city has reached that total in at least six years as shootings and homicides soar.
The city reached the 1,000 shootings victim benchmark on Wednesday, when 16 people were shot, including a 4-year-old. At least 1,001 people had been shot in Chicago as of Wednesday.
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Chicago has been grappling with rising violence in the first half of 2016, as both shootings and homicides had increased by 80 percent at the end of March, according to data compiled by DNAinfo Chicago.
The city is on pace to see 700 murders this year. That would be the highest number of murders since 1998, when 704 people were killed.
In recent years, the city has passed the 1,000 shooting victims mark in early-to-mid June. In 2012, the city hit 1,000 shooting victims on May 25, the second earliest date after this year.
Here is when Chicago hit 1,000 shooting victims since 2010, when DNAinfo Chicago started compiling shooting data.
• 2016: April 20
• 2015: June 7
• 2014: June 17
• 2013: June 25
• 2012: May 25
• 2011: June 10
• 2010: June 12
City officials have disagreed about why shootings have spiked this year.
Police have made drastically fewer investigatory stops and have confiscated fewer guns than in recent years, a fact the police union chalked up to sinking morale after the Laquan McDonald case drew extreme criticism of the department.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel even said that police had gone into the "fetal position" in fear of being the next officer to make national headlines.
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