President Donald Trump has threatened to deploy the National Guard to Chicago and other big cities as a way to fight crime. Yet, behind the aggressive talk, data actually shows that most U.S. violent crime has been in a steady decline. Homicides through the first six months of 2025 were down significantly in Chicago, New York City, Seattle, Baltimore, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon. It's a continuation of a trend since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Aggravated assaults were also down, with the exception of New York, where they were virtually unchanged. The Associated Press relied on numbers from AH Datalytics, which tracks crimes across the country.

Investigators in Minneapolis say the shooter who killed two Catholic school students and wounded 18 other people inside a church had become obsessed with the thought of killing defenseless children. Police said Thursday that the shooter idolized mass killers and wanted to terrorize innocent children. The police chief in Minneapolis says the shooter, identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, fired 116 rifle rounds through stained-glass windows Wednesday morning. The children were celebrating Mass during the first week of classes at the Annunciation Catholic School. Acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson says videos and writings the shooter left behind show Westman expressed hatred toward almost every group imaginable.

President Donald Trump's threats to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago sent ripples through America's third-largest city as residents defended their home against Trump's escalating rhetoric toward violent crime, including claims Chicago is a "killing field." In a city on edge awaiting news of a potential National Guard deployment, the threat of federal troops stirred a mix of fear, frustration and defiance for residents as they pointed to historic drops in violent crime in the city. Some said it could make things worse with military personnel not being trained in de-escalating violence the way community activists and police are.