Anton Watson (C) and other children participate in a peace vigil in the Washington Park neighborhood on November 30, 2012 in Chicago, Illinois. About 75 children, teachers, and parents were joined by area residents and religious leaders as they marched in the streets to draw attention to the violence that plagues their Southside neighborhood. Through the end of October 436 people were murdered in Chicago, surpassing the 435 murders for all of 2011. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago police say it’s too soon to say whether the city has had its 500th homicide of the year.
The Chicago Police Department homicide tally stood at 499 on Thursday before a man was fatally shot in the head outside a convenience store on the city’s West Side. That would have made 40-year-old Nathaniel Jackson the 500th homicide victim.
But police clarified Friday afternoon that the department’s official homicide tally still stands at 499 because a death in a domestic dispute earlier in December has been classified by the coroner’s office as inconclusive pending toxicology tests. It was originally logged as a homicide.
The last time Chicago reached the 500-homicide mark was in 2008, when the year ended with 512 killings. Last year, city records show Chicago had 435 homicides.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
