ST. LOUIS (AP) — St. Louis recorded its worst homicide rate for 50 years in 2020, even though the total number of homicides last year fell just short of the city’s all-time record.
Police say 262 people were killed in St. Louis last year — five less than the record of 267 set in 1993. But because the city’s population has declined since 1993, the homicide rate was much higher in 2020.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the city’s homicide rate hit 87 killings per 100,000 residents in 2020, the highest on record since 1970. The figure exceeds the previous high of 69 per 100,000 people set in 1993.