President Donald Trump wasn’t playing. Trump made good on his word when he said he was sending in the Feds to Chicago combat gun violence early Friday.
He wrote on his Twitter account, “Crime and killings in Chicago have reached such epidemic proportions that I am sending in Federal help. 1714 shootings in Chicago this year!”
Trump sent 20 additional agents with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to the Chicago Sun Times. The ATF agents are reportedly working with 20 members from the Chicago Police Department and Illinois State Police on a strike force whose mission is to solve shootings and hunt down gun traffickers through ballistics technology.
Chicago is on pace to match last year’s homicide total of 760. There were 320 murders in Chicago as of Thursday, June 29 compared with 322 in the same time frame in 2016, according to CPD stats compiled by the Sun Times.
Chicago made Forbes’ annual list for America’s most dangerous cities this month. Forbes compiled stats for the homicide rate per 100,000 residents over the last five years.
Chicago was ranked number 16 on the list. In 2016, Chicago recorded its worst record for homicides in nearly two decades with 762 murders, 3,550 shooting incidents and 4,331 shooting victims, Forbes reports.
