In this scene from a 2015 video, Chicago police investigate a homicide. (Screen snip, YouTube, Chicago Tribune)
By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
In a bizarre turn of events, just after Chicago authorities reported that the homicide body count for this year had passed the 500 mark, the son of the city’s Housing Authority chief was arrested in connection with a slaying in Indianapolis, Ind.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, 18-year-old Eugene Jones turned himself in to Indianapolis police two days after the fatal shooting of Deante Williams, also 18. Williams died at a hospital after the shooting.
The irony will not overshadow the number of Chicago murders this year. The Chicago Tribune reported that the 500 mark had been reached at mid-month following a particularly violent weekend in which 11 people were killed and more than 30 others had been wounded by gunfire. The milestone was still something of a “good news” event, since last year saw Chicago top 500 slayings in August.
The Sun-Times reported that as of Sept. 18, at least 2,718 people had been wounded in the city. That’s down from the 3,066 who had been struck by gunfire at the same time last year.
Last year, more than 700 people were killed in Chicago, one of only two cities in the country with a so-called “gun violence tax.” The other is Seattle.
The tax was adopted by Cook County about three years ago. According to the Chicago Tribune, homicides in the Windy City are “down about 7 percent from this time last year.” However, even though the lower murder number coincides with a decline of more than 11 percent in the number of shooting incidents in which people were wounded, neighborhoods in the city are still more violent, with murder statistics that outpace some entire states.
