Chicago logs 500th homicide of 2012

• Tweet

CHICAGO, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- Chicago achieved a grim milestone, its 500th homicide of 2012, with the shooting death of a man in the city's Austin neighborhood, authorities said.

Police found Nathaniel T. Jackson, 49, shot in the head on a sidewalk in front of a convenience store Thursday. He was taken to Stroger Hospital and pronounced dead, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Friday.

The city last recorded 500 homicides in 2008, when 512 people were killed.

Homicides were up 17 percent and shootings up 11 percent over last year as of Thursday, police statistics indicate.

Unseasonable warmth early in the year contributed to the spike in homicides, which in the first three months of 2012 ran about 60 percent of the 2011 rate, the Chicago Tribune said.