Philadelphia reaches 100 homicides for 2022, outpacing last year

Philadelphia has topped 100 homicides in 2022, outpacing the number of killings this time last year, which ended as the deadliest in the city’s recorded history.

The 100th victim was a 28-year-old man who was shot multiple times shortly before 11 p.m. Thursday on the 100 block of North 53rd Street in West Philadelphia. The man was rushed by police to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 12:32 a.m. Friday.

As of Friday evening, the city had not named the victim. Fox 29 reported that his family had identified him as Bryheem Barr.

By March 10 last year, Philadelphia had 92 homicides. The city had a total of 562 homicides in 2021, breaking the previous record of 500 killings reported in 1990.

For comparison, New York City, with five times as many people, had 488 homicides for all of last year. As of last weekend, the city reported 67 killings so far in 2022.

Chicago this week also reached 100 homicides for the year, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

» READ MORE: Philly’s homicide crisis in 2021 featured more guns, more retaliatory shootings, and a decline in arrests and convictions

In the last two years, gun violence and homicide numbers have soared in many cities across the nation.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw posted a statement to Twitter on Friday morning acknowledging the city’s somber milestone.

“We are devastated that 100 people have been murdered this year. PPD will continue to utilize every resource we have to stem this tide of violence, and will not rest until we bring to justice those who seek to cause harm ... to our city and its people; it is our #1 priority,” she wrote.

Mayor Jim Kenney also issued a statement and said that his administration “continues to work relentlessly to reduce violence.”

“The fact that our city has lost 100 souls already this year pains me to my core,” he said. “As mayor, my number one priority is to keep people safe and protect our residents. The surge in gun violence that we’ve seen across the nation — and here in Philadelphia — is heartbreaking, it’s maddening, and it makes me as outraged as everyone else.”