With shootings spiking on Labor Day, Chicago officially exceeded the homicide toll for all of last year, marking another deadly milestone for a city that has seen violence at its worst in two decades with still almost four months to go this year.

According to official Police Department statistics, through 5 AM on Tuesday, the city recorded 488 homicides, marking a 47 percent increase from 331 for the same year during earlier period and exceeding the 481 total for all of 2015 .

The number of shooting victims has reached to 2,930, approaching the 2,988 total for all of last year.

The Labor Day weekend came to a particularly violent end with 31 shot, nine fatally, between 6 AM on Monday and 3 AM on Tuesday, by the Tribune's count. Overall, 65 people were shot over the long weekend.

The Police Department's statistics did not include killings on area expressways, Police-involved shootings, other justifiable homicides or death investigations that could later be reclassified as homicides. Data from the Cook County medical examiner's office shows the total number of killings at 512 as of early Tuesday including those.

The surge in violence has come at a time of upheaval for the Police Department amid a month-long investigation by the U.S. Justice Department in the fallout over the videotaped fatal shooting of black teen Laquan McDonald by an officer.

Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said on Tuesday that his department has been doing all it can to combat violence rooted in poverty and hopelessness.

Johnson told reporters outside police headquarters, "It's not a police issue, it's a society issue. Impoverished neighborhoods, people without hope do these kinds of things. You show me a man that doesn't have hope, I'll show you one that's willing to pick up a gun and do anything with it. Those are the issues that's driving this violence."

Also Read: Shooting All Over The City': 3 shot including a pregnant woman, Chicago

By Prakriti Neogi