Chicago ends 2020 with 769 homicides as gun violence surges

CHICAGO (AP) — The year 2020 ended in Chicago with more homicides than in all but one year in more than two decades. Police on Friday reported that there were 769 homicides compared with 495 last year. The surge in the number of homicides and shootings comes after three straight in which the totals have fallen after climbing to 784 in 2016. As in other cities, Chicago police attribute much of the increase in gun violence to the global coronavirus pandemic and civil unrest that erupted afte