A Monday night homicide in Oakland, near the San Leandro border, marks the 28th in the city so far this year, putting it almost exactly on par with last year which saw the lowest number of murders in a decade. Louis Montgomery, 35, was shot several times while driving just after 5 p.m. Monday on the 1400 block of 104th Avenue, and his car then crashed into a light pole. He was pronounced dead at the scene, as the Tribune reports.

Anyone with information about Montgomery's murder is asked to call police at 510-238-3821 and 510-238-3426 or Crime Stoppers at 510-777-8572.

Four months into the year in 2013 Oakland had seen a similar number of killings, and ultimately finished out the year with 92 homicides, the lowest number since 2004 — and of those 88 are considered murders, with others being justifiable homicides, including 3 officer-involved shootings. San Francisco also saw a drop between 2012 and 2013, from 69 to 48 total homicides. See the full historical chart for Oakland here, going back to 2000.

A global study on homicides was just released two weeks ago by the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime, showing that while homicides in the U.S. trail those in Mexico, and while South and Central America definitely have North America beat in terms of homicide numbers, Europe still puts us all to shame, with many countries reporting rates of less than one killing per 100,000 per year. The most dangerous country in the world right now would be Honduras, where more than 90 people per 100,000 were killed last year. The next highest isn't even close, which is Venezuela with a rate 53.7. By comparison, San Francisco's rate for 2013 was 6 per 100,000, and Oakland's was 23.

[Oakland Tribune]
[Slate]