Chicago may reach 500 homicides in 2012

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.