On January 23, 2017, Giovanni Lopez, age 20, was killed in Chicago, Illinois. His death occurred during a year when Chicago was facing a severe wave of gun violence, which led to one of the deadliest years in recent history. In 2016 alone, the city experienced 762 homicides, which represented a 58% increase from 2015. Giovanni’s death took place against the backdrop of a city struggling to handle increased crime rates, with many young people becoming victims of ongoing violence.
Chicago’s homicide numbers during this period surpassed those of New York and Los Angeles combined.
Efforts to curb the violence included initiatives by organizations like the University of Chicago’s Crime Lab, which worked to understand the root causes behind the increase in homicides. However, concrete reasons for the dramatic surge remained elusive, and the violence continued to affect many neighborhoods, making tragedies like Giovanni Lopez’s death part of a much larger crisis in Chicago.
