St. Louis homicides hit 21-year high in 2017 — but killings dip overall in big cities
Three homicides reported early Friday morning in St. Louis pushed the city’s homicide count to a 21-year high, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
The women killed Friday, all in their 20s, were victims of a home invasion. They were the 201st, 202nd and 203rd homicide victims in St. Louis this year.
The last year that St. Louis had more than 200 homicides was 1995 —when there were 204.
St. Louis’ figures come in a year of record lows of violent crime in other cities.
The murder rate in the 30 largest cities is estimated to decline by 5.6 percent in 2017, according to a report released this week by the Brennan Center for Justice.
Violent crime is also estimated to decrease slightly, by 1.1 percent.
Chicago, Detroit and New York are a few of the cities where killings have decreased.
New York had recorded 278 killings as of Dec. 17, the Associated Press reported, and is on pace to have fewer than the city’s previous all-time low of 333 set in 2014.
The 146th homicide was reported Friday morning in Kansas City.
Max Londberg: 816-234-4378, @MaxLondberg
This story was originally published December 22, 2017 at 10:15 AM with the headline "St. Louis homicides hit 21-year high in 2017 — but killings dip overall in big cities."