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Killings across the Richmond region soared in 2016 to the highest level in more than a decade, with African-Americans suffering the greatest loss of life at 81 percent of all victims. Homicides in the region’s four cities, three towns and 16 counties with a collective population of 1.26 million jumped 24 percent, from 98 in 2015 to 124 last year — the highest tally since 2005, when 132 killings occurred, according to a Richmond Times-Dispatch analysis of regional homicide data. The distressing loss of black lives continued at a disproportionately high pace in 2016, with 101 of the 124 victims,...

Two men in their late 20s were shot dead early Sunday morning outside a Checkers Drive-In restaurant near Greenbriar Mall in Atlanta. Ahmad Johnson, 27, of East Point, and Rickie Burke, 28, of Atlanta, died on the scene, according to the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office. David Worrell, 22, was in critical condition after being shot, and later died at Grady Memorial Hospital. Drugs were discovered at the scene, according to police. A witness told Gehlbach (reporter) that he heard as many as 30 shots fired.

Atlanta’s deputy police chief says he’s concerned about an upward trend in murders across the city. So far this year, there have been six homicides in the city of Atlanta. That’s three times the amount the city had at this time last year. “We're concerned about the trend, anytime you have homicides, you’re concerned. But this time last year, we had two,” APD Deputy Chief Darryl Tolleson said. By the end of January 2016, there were just eight homicides in the city. Tolleson said four additional detective slots have just been added to the APD homicide unit. Last year, Atlanta...

Gage Park victims' identities officially released by medical examiner Chicago Tribune staff Contact Reporter The Cook County medical examiner's office on Saturday officially released information on the identities of the six people found killed inside a Gage Park home this week. The six family members were found dead a little after 1 p.m. Thursday when police were called to a home in the 5700 block of South California Avenue because a man who lived there had not shown up for work. Those killed were identified as Rosaura Martinez, 58, who family members have said went by Rosaura Hernandez; her husband,...

Police positively identified two of the four people found dead inside a burning Northwest D.C. home Thursday as a prominent and well-liked husband and wife who lived at the residence. Police said the two victims were Savvas Savopoulos, the president of a local construction company and his wife, Amy. Police tentatively identified the other two victims as the couple’s 10-year-old son, Philip and a housekeeper. Three of the four suffered blunt force or sharp object wounds, D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said. All the deaths are being investigated as homicides and the fire was intentionally set. The news came as...

Homicides in the District are up by more than half in the first six months of the year. But unlike the days when drive-by shootings and feuds among drug gangs propelled the deadly violence, the current uptick is the result of a spike in domestic killings behind closed doors that have contributed to more female homicide victims already than in all of 2013. Through Monday, the city recorded 59 homicides — up sharply from the 38 at the same point last year. The figure marks a drastic departure from a generally downward trend in killings in the nation’s capital over...

The day of the funeral for a 5-year-old Omaha girl killed by a stray bullet, a national organization declared that Nebraska has the highest black homicide rate in the nation. The statistics that the Washington D.C.-based Violence Prevention Center analyzed do not include the Jan. 15 killing of Payton Benson. The numbers come from 2011, the most recent year for which comprehensive national homicide data is available. But a high ranking is not a one-year anomaly. Thirty black people — including 27 people in Omaha — were killed in homicides in Nebraska in 2011. That translates to a black homicide...

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The number of homicides in Maine reached 31 in 2008, the highest number since 1989, when 40 people were killed in the deadliest year in Maine history. The number of fire deaths, meanwhile, was lower than average. Of the 2008 homicides, 19 were domestic related, or roughly two-thirds of the killings, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety. Normally, about half of Maine’s homicides are domestic related, he said. The latest domestic killing was a baby boy who was allegedly beaten in Wilton.