01/02
   CHICAGO (UPI) -- 1992 ended with a double homicide raising
Chicago's murder toll to 936 -- the second deadliest year in the
city's history.
   Two young men were found fatally shot in the head at a house on
North Austin late Thursday. Police believe the slayings of William
Borges, 26, and Richardo Aldana, 22, may have been gang related.
Borges' pregnant girlfriend found the bodies, police said.
   The only year with more killings came 19 years ago when a record
970 homicides were reported. However, 1992 had the highest murder
rate -- 33. 7 killings per 1,000 residents -- because of a 400,000
population loss.
   The city's murder rate was 30.6 per 1,000 residents in 1974.
   A Chicago Tribune analysis showed 80 percent of the homicide
victims were black, 88 percent male, and that gang warfare accounted
for about one in 10 of every black victim's death. Two-hundred 58
murder victims were under age 21.
   A woman struck by random gunfire during a New Year's celebration
was the first homicide victim of 1993. Joyce Foster, 28, was
standing near a window in a public housing project when a bullet
crashed through and hit her in the head.
   "She was in the kitchen stooping over the garbage can when she
was shot, said Area One Violent Crimes Sgt. Marshall Andrews. "We
don't know if it was somebody shooting from the gangway or what."
   Four other people died violently on New Year's Day.
   A 20-year-old man was found stabbed to death about 2 a.m. at the
Kedzie Ave. rapid transit station, another 20-year-old man was shot
in the back and pronounced dead at Loretto Hospital, an unidentified
West Side man died Friday morning hours after he was shot in the
head, and a 20-year-old North Side grocery store employee was
fatally shot by a man who had been escorted from the store.
   Police confiscated more than 21,500 illegal guns in 1992,
including 647 used in homicides. One-thousand 25 people were
convicted of murder in Cook County last year.
   "Both victims and offenders are getting younger," said Cook
County State's Attorney Jack O'Malley. "We are seeing an alarming
lack of appreciation and respect for human life by a frightening
number of young people."