Matrice D. White was 20 when he was killed in Chicago on January 29, 2016. His death came during an especially violent January for the city, which recorded 51 homicides that month—a 16-year high—and a doubling of shootings and shooting victims compared with the prior January.

The surge in homicides in 2016 affected many neighborhoods on the South and West Sides and was widely attributed in local accounts to escalating gang conflicts and a fraught policing environment that critics said made officers more hesitant to stop people. Matrice White was one of hundreds of victims in a year when Chicago’s murder toll rose sharply and drew national attention.