CHICAGO HOMICIDE TOLL HIGHEST SINCE 1999

The nation’s third-largest city has recorded at least 95 homicides in the first two months of 2016, the deadliest start to a year since the late 1990s, according to police department data.

Chicago Police Department officials said Tuesday that the spike in violence is being driven by a rise in gang activity. The city recorded at least 43 homicides in February after recording 52 homicides in January, matching the deadliest start of a year for the city since 1999. That year the city recorded 643 murders.

The city’s police also recorded 165 shooting incidents for the month of February. Not counted in the police department’s official homicide toll are several violent deaths that were ruled justified.

If all violent deaths were counted, the homicide toll would rise to 102 for the first two months of the year, according to a database maintained by the Chi

cago Tribune.