In most US cities, that would be the norm. In the Windy City, where blood has stained the streets all year, it's an aberration. Sure enough, after the mid-month lull, the city tumbled back into a gruelling and seemingly endless series of killings, with 15 people gunned down in subsequent days. Chicago, effectively the capital of America's Midwest, is hurtling toward the end of its deadliest year in nearly two decades, with more than 750 murders and 3,500 shootings.
By comparison, America's two biggest cities, Los Angeles and New York, had about 600 murders combined. The shootings in Chicago, which spiked nearly 50 percent in 2016, were concentrated mostly in historically segregated, economically struggling and predominantly African-American and Latino neighbourhoods.
As 2017 arrives, there are few clear answers as to how to staunch the bleeding, but city officials are looking at a number of new - and rehashed - plans. Chicago police chief Eddie Johnson spent much of 2016 hammering home a key idea: Gangs, guns and an outmatched police force were a toxic brew.
With the support of the city's Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Johnson intends to hire almost 1,000 additional officers over the next two years. "This will make us a bigger department, a better department, and a more effective department," Johnson said in September when he announced the plan. The first class of new recruits will graduate in 2017 and join a force under increased scrutiny and pressure.
The department is facing a federal civil rights probe, the outcome of which could change how officers operate, adding a measure of uncertainty in the new year. The force already has difficulties dealing with a wary African-American population. Some do not cooperate in murder investigations out of fear of retribution or distrust of police. The department solved only about a third of the murders committed in 2016.
Tensions intensified when a video became public in late 2015 showing a white police officer fatally shooting black teenager Laquan McDonald. Jason Van Dyke, who was later charged with murder, shot McDonald 16 times, continuing to fire his gun even after the 17-year-old had fallen to the ground. At about the same time, the department changed its policy for stopping and searching people, requiring officers to fill out more complicated paperwork. Police activity dropped. Gun violence did not. "It wasn't until March-April that we started seeing (police) activity increase," police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told AFP in November.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2017