Cook County tops 1,000 homicides for first time in 27 years

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CHICAGO — There's still more than a month left in the calendar year and Cook County has already recorded more than 1,000 homicides. It's the first time the county has reached that figure in 27 years, the Medical Examiner's Office said.

As of Tuesday, the official county’s homicide total stood at 1,009 people dead. Of those, 927 were gun-related and 777 occurred in Chicago.

The last time Cook County had more than 1,000 homicides in one year was 1994, when the county recorded 1,141. The record for Cook County is 1,229 homicides in 1991.

Cook County had 986 homicides total last year, a 40% increase over 2019’s total of 675.

The vast majority of the homicide victims have been black, with 81% of the victims identified as such, the Medical Examiner’s office said. Latinos accounted for just under 15% of victims. The oldest victim so far this year was 84, and the youngest was 1 month old.