Pandemic, juvenile crime, gun trafficking leads to murder surge in the U.S.: report

NEW YORK, April 25 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 pandemic, more juveniles committing violent crime and interstate gun trafficking led to a 29-percent jump in murder in the United States, FBI Director Christopher Wray told CBS in an interview airing Sunday evening.

"We're seeing an alarming frequency of some of the worst of the worst getting back out on the streets," said the FBI chief, as nearly 5,000 more people were killed in 2020 than the year before.

There was a 59-percent increase in the murders of police officers, with 73 officers killed in 2021, underscoring an issue that doesn't get enough attention, Wray said in the interview.

"Violence against law enforcement in this country is one of the biggest phenomena that I think doesn't get enough attention. Last year, officers were being killed at a rate of almost one every five days," said the director.

He said one of the phenomena is that an alarming percentage of the 73 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty last year were killed through things like being ambushed or shot while out on patrol.