Los Angeles, 11 other major cities experienced record-high violence in 2021

Twelve major US cities reported record-breaking levels of gun violence in 2021, according to statistics from police bureaus in the metropolitan hubs.

An LA Times report this week detailed the sharp uptick in gun violence in Los Angeles in 2021. Los Angeles experienced 400 killings and over 1,400 injuries from shootings last year, more than any year in the city since 2007.

A handful of US cities broke record gun violence highs in 2021, surpassing records that were broken the previous year, in 2020. An analysis by the LA Times found the causes of the upticks hard to pinpoint, but noted that young black and latino males continued to make up a majority of the homicides in Los Angeles in 2021.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, experts cite financial and emotional drain, as well as the disruption of social services normally relied upon by minority communities, which are also the hardest hit by gun violence.

Capt. Frank Umbrino, of the Rochester Police Department, said at a news conference in November after the city broke its previous 30-year gun violence record, “The community has to get fed up. We’re extremely frustrated. It has to stop. I mean, it’s worse than a war zone around here lately.”