Chicago murders still outpacing New York and L.A. combined

Chicago was pushed into an unwanted spotlight earlier this year when it was noted the city has recorded more murders than New York City and Los Angeles combined.

As the year winds down, that’s still holding true.

The city surpassed 700 homicides over the weekend, according to a Chicago Sun-Times analysis of Cook County medical examiner’s records. That number includes 10 cases in which victims died this year but were injured in previous years.

The Chicago Police Department tallied 654 murders as of Nov. 13. The department’s total omits “non-criminal” deaths that the medical examiner classifies as homicides, as well as expressway murders handled by the Illinois State Police.

Even by the Chicago Police Department’s tally, Chicago has seen the most first-degree murders in a single year since 2002, records show. And the city is far outpacing L.A. and New York combined.

As of Nov. 13, New York City had seen 295 murders so far this year, according to the NYPD.

The LAPD had recorded 263 homicides through Nov. 12.

Combined, New York City and Los Angeles are home to more than 12.2 million people, compared to Chicago’s 2.7 million.

Despite Chicago’s increase in murders in 2016, overall, the yearly totals have fallen since the mid-1990s — and yearly tallies are far less than what they reached in previous decades.

In 1974, Chicago recorded 970 first-degree murders, according to police records. In 1994, the city saw 931.