Report paints grim picture of Chicago-area gun deaths

CHICAGO (AP) — Officials say more people were shot to death in Chicago and surrounding Cook County in 2021 than in any other year on record. The county medical examiner’s office said Monday that there were 1,002 gun-related homicides last year in Cook County, which includes Chicago and its surrounding suburbs. That was 121 more than the previous record set in 2020 and nearly twice as many as in 2019. The announcement comes two days after police in Chicago announced that the nation’s third-largest city recorded its most homicides in a quarter-century. In Cook County, Black people were the victims of 80% of the homicides and Hispanic people were the victims in 14% of them.