Baltimore has not seen 100 homicides before the end of April since 1998 however violence spiked once again in the spring of 2015, following civil unrest prompted by the death Freddie Gray. The 25-year-old, who was arrested for carrying a switch blade, died from spinal cord injuries six days after he was heavily arrested by police.

That year was Baltimore’s deadliest per capita in the city’s history with 344 murders. The next year, marked its second highest, with 318 deaths.

This year, it is on track to beat both records and surpass all other big U.S. cities. The 124 slayings in Baltimore, with a population of 614,000, bring the homicide rate to 20.2 per 100,000 residents, reports the Washington Post.

The Maryland city went a decade with 300 or more killings each year in the 1990s before the numbers finally began falling in 2000.

The current 2017 statistics suggest the city currently has triple Washington’s rate and higher than the homicide rates in New Orleans and Chicago, two places that have become national symbols of gun violence.

Despite the surge in violence the city is operating with hundreds of fewer officers than at any point over the past decade, the police force has shrunk in the past several years, from 2,900 officers to 2,700.

In January, the police union president Lt. Gene Ryan, in an interview with CBS Baltimore, called staffing levels dangerous.

‘You get in a crisis mode like we’re in right now with crime out of control and not enough uniformed officers on the street, I would say it’s at a crisis point.’

Source: Michael Baisden