Baltimore Hits 300 Homicides So Far This Year

The day before Baltimore activists will launch their second ceasefire of the year, the city surpassed 300 homicides for 2017.

Three homicides Thursday evening pushed the city to the 300 mark for the third year in a row.

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This violent start to the month comes after an average of one person per day was killed in October.

Prior to 2015, Baltimore hadn’t seen 300 homicides in a single year since the 1990s, which by body count was the deadliest decade in the city’s history. Breaking 300 was a common occurrence back then.

Still, the death rate wasn’t what it is now, because there were about 100,000 more residents in the city then.

In 2015, Baltimore broke 300 homicides for the first time since 1999, and that year ended with 344 homicides, a per capita record.

In 2016, the city passed the mark again, with 318 homicides.

Now, with 300 homicides at the start of November, the city is on pace to break records again. It could even surpass the total homicide record set in 1993, when there were 353 killings.

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That’s the message activists hope to bring with them into the 72-hour ceasefire scheduled for this weekend. It’s the second of its kind in recent months.

The first ceasefire was held in August, back when the city’s homicide count stood at 188. Even as residents marched through the city, held cookouts and other events aimed at curbing the violence, the weekend was marred by gunfire — including at least two homicides.

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