Cook County homicides top 900 mark in 2020: What's happened in Northwest suburbs
Cook County has recorded 902 homicides this year, marking the first time since 2016 and just the second time in nearly a quarter-century that the 900 mark has been reached. A handful of those cases were in the Northwest suburbs.
The vast majority of the homicides were in Chicago, where the police department on Tuesday announced that the 58 homicides in November had brought the total for the year to 716, leaving 186 in Cook County suburbs.
The medical examiner's office did not break down counts by suburb in its news release. But there were homicides in Arlington Heights, Des Plaines, Elk Grove Village, Hanover Park, Hoffman Estates, Wheeling and Glenview.
The medical examiner's office said that as of Nov. 30 there were 902 confirmed homicides between Jan. 1 and Nov. 30, compared to 675 homicides in the county in all of 2019.
Gun violence has continued to plague Chicago in recent years, with far more gun deaths in the city than any other city in the U.S. Shooting incidents account for 810 of the Cook County homicides.
Shootings happened in the Northwest suburbs most recently this fall. A homicide victim found in a Hoffman Estates home by police in October died from a gunshot wound to the face. A 17-year-old boy who knew the 20-year-old slain man faces first-degree murder and attempted armed robbery charges in that case.
A Dolton man faces murder and other charges in the Aug. 11 shooting of a 26-year-old South Holland man in Hanover Park, which police describe as a domestic altercation that became a gunfight. Jason D. Williams, 34, was charged with one count each of murder, attempted murder and other charges.
And a Tennessee man was charged with murder and home invasion in connection with an Arlington Heights break-in that left another man dead in April. Prosecutors say Bradley J. Finnan, 39, of Chattanooga and the Larry D. Brodacz, 58, of Buffalo Grove pushed their way into the home and threatened the family living there at gunpoint, in what police called a robbery attempt. Amid the ensuing struggles, a homeowner fatally shot Brodacz. Finnan is charged with that death.
The Northwest suburbs saw a couple of fatal stabbings. A 45-year-old Des Plaines man was found stabbed to death behind an Elk Grove Village business in June. Prosecutors say Jonas Villafuerte-Vega, 39, of Des Plaines was angry over his wife's affair with the victim.
And a 16-year-old boy surrendered to Glenview police and ultimately was put on house arrest as he was charged with second-degree murder in connection with the Aug. 5 stabbing death of Elias Valdez, a rising sophomore at Glenbrook South High School.
In another suburban case, an SUV was the weapon, according to authorities. Jose Fermin Zavala-Hernandez, 38, of Wheeling is charged with first-degree murder in the May 20 death of another Wheeling man. Police say Zavala-Hernandez struck the victim with a Toyota SUV that then crashed through the front of a house on Equestrian Drive in Wheeling. That followed a May 17 domestic violence case in which Zavala-Hernandez is accused of assaulting his wife; the crash victim's involvement was unclear.
One Northwest suburban homicide came in a January DUI case. A 33-year-old Florida man was charged with reckless homicide, accused of killing a Des Plaines father and injuring his teenage son in a crash near Elmhurst and Golf roads in Des Plaines.
Not surprising in the total Cook County figures, given that the vast majority of homicides in Chicago have occurred in predominantly minority communities, the medical examiner's office reported that 78% of the county's homicide victims were Black and 16% were Latino.
Nearly 3,800 people were shot in Chicago this year through the end of November, compared with about 2,400 shooting victims in the same period last year - a 58% increase.
In 2016, Cook County saw 921 homicides. Before that, homicides numbered more than 900 in the mid-1990s: 959 in 1996, 987 in 1995, and 1,141.