NEW YORK — Homicides across the United States are poised to plummet for the third straight year as 2024 winds down, driving the nation's annual murder toll down to levels not seen since before the pandemic, according to preliminary data from cities both large and small.
In contrast, a dozen major U.S. cities broke annual homicide records in 2021.
The numbers also come just days after a 15-year-old girl allegedly carried out a shooting rampage at her Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin, killing a teacher and a classmate, and injuring six other students before dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.
The Wisconsin shooting came three months after a 14-year-old boy allegedly killed two students and two teachers, and injured nine others at his high school in Winder, Georgia, with an AR-style weapon police alleged his father gave him as a Chrismas present.
Biden also established the in 2023 the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention to focus on ways to assist states and cities reduce the nation's epidemic of gun violence.
ABC News' Calvin Milliner contributed to this report.