The number of fatal shootings in the city of Boston is up nearly 18 percent over last year.
From Jan. 1 through Dec. 3, 2017, there have been 40 fatal shootings in Boston, according to Boston police data. That's six more than during that same time period last year.
The number of overall shootings is also up about 10 percent during that time span, jumping from 212 to 233.
| Shooting Category | 2016 | 2017 | # Change | % Change |
| Non-fatal shootings | 178 | 193 | 15 | 8 |
| Fatal shootings | 34 | 40 | 6 | 18 |
| Total shootings | 212 | 233 | 21 | 10 |
Those numbers do not include Wednesday night's triple shooting in Mission Hill, in which a 20-year-old man was shot to death and two 17-year-olds injured just as a school basketball game was letting out and hundreds of youths poured into the streets. It also doesn't include another reported shooting on Thursday afternoon in Mattapan.
Wednesday night's triple shooting in Mission Hill was the fifth so far this year. There were three triple shootings during the same time period in 2016.
Boston Police Commissioner William Evans, who has been vocal about the amount of guns on the streets, called Wednesday's shooting "troubling." He was particularly enraged about Wednesday's violent gun crime because Congress recently passed a bill making it easier for gun owners to legally carry concealed weapons across state lines.
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"We shouldn’t be looking to loosen our gun laws in Washington, we should be looking to toughen them," Evans said. "When you have young kids like that shot, we should all be outraged, and the last thing we need is more guns on the street."
