With three weeks left in the year, the homicide tally could top 400 for the first time since 1997. There were 418 killings that year, the last of eight years in the 1990s when there were 400 or more.The total, however, remains far from the record of 500 set in 1990 during the city’s crack epidemic, according to the police department’s public affairs division. The department previously had reported that year’s total as 525.While the high murder rate in the 1990s was widely attributed to the crack epidemic, police, city officials and victims advocates say this year’s shootings don’t follow a simple pattern — except that people are settling many disputes with guns.”People are getting killed over nonsense, just for no reason,” said Lisa Seals, 38, whose sister was fatally shot in August in West Philadelphia, allegedly by a neighbor who had a romantic interest in her. “It’s not even about the drugs no more. These young kids are just losing their mind.”
NBC10: It’s Always Runny In Philadelphia