Homicides fell sharply in many leading US cities last year, plummeting by as much as 20 percent, official data showed on Wednesday.
The US’ biggest metropolises, such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, which witnessed sky-high murder rates in the 1990s, saw a continuation of the downward trend of recent years.
NEW YORK
New York recorded 333 homicides through Sunday last week, according to city figures, 84 fewer than one year earlier.
There were also significantly fewer homicides in Los Angeles, the second-largest US city, with a 17 percent decline last year.
US President Barack Obama’s adopted hometown of Chicago, the US’ third-biggest city in population, also had a notable drop in murders.
CHICAGO’S STRUGGLES
Chicago had been struggling to stem an epidemic of homicides, after gang violence pushed the murder toll there to 501 in 2012.
Crime reports through Dec. 27 showed 407 homicides, a nearly 20 percent drop.
However, Washington was an exception to the national trend with 17 percent more murders committed last year than in 2012.
STATISTICAL ANOMALY
Officials in the US capital explained that the rise was in part a statistical anomaly, since the previous year, 2012, registered an unusually low 88 killings.
They also pointed to the murderous rampage by a gunman at Washington’s Navy Yard who killed 12 people in September — a single act of violence which they said skewed the city’s annual homicide figures.
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