LOS ANGELES: Homicides in Los Angeles, the second-largest city in the United States, reached 15-year high in first half of 2022, reported Xinhua.
From Jan 1 to June 30, 2022, there were 181 homicides in the city, according to publicly available Los Angeles Police Department data, said the report released on Tuesday by Crosstown, a non-profit news organisation covering the neighbourhoods of Los Angeles, adding that the number slightly exceeded the 178 killed in the same time frame last year.
In all of 2021, there were 397 homicides, the highest annual total since 2007, said the report.
The rising murder rate in the city is being driven by two primary categories: homicides involving gang members and killings of people experiencing homelessness, Michel Moore, chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, was quoted as saying by the report.
The report noted that the heightened death toll in Los Angeles came amid an increase in gun use. More than three out of every four homicides in the city this year involved some type of firearm.
In addition, men remained far more likely to be murder victims in Los Angeles than women. In the first half of 2022, 158 males were killed, while just 12.7 per cent of the victims were female, according to the report.
The increase in Los Angeles homicides echoed a trend seen in major metropolitan areas across the nation since the onset of Covid-19, the report added.
Crosstown is based out of the University of Southern California (USC) Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism, in partnership with the Integrated Media Systems Center at the Viterbi School of Engineering. — Bernama
