Pandemic stress is also considered a contributing factor to the number of homicides during the unprecedented year.
Chicago police also released the final crime number for 2020 Friday which showed that shootings and murders jumped up by more than 50% in 2020.
In 2020, there were 769 murders, up considerably compared to the 495 murders tallied in 2019.
As for shootings, the city logged 3,261 last year, a big jump from 2,140 shootings in 2019. The number of shooting victims climbed to 4,033 in 2020, up from 2,598 in 2019.
This illustrating a skyrocketing year for violence after three years of progress where many innocent children were killed and some police also became targets of gunfire.
“I’m maintaining doing the very best I can,” she said. “I’m trying to be hopeful constantly, because this is a crisis that’s not going away.”
Reyes was a college baseball player in South Carolina with dreams of playing in the major leagues. Then his life was cut short.
“He was a beautiful boy as he was on earth, and I know he is in heaven,” she said.
According to the Chicago Police Department, 762 people have been killed in city violence so far this year. Last year 491 people died from violence. The deadliest year was in 2016 when the city had 771 murders.