Must Reads: Analyzing 52,000 homicides, walking away from hatred, celebrating the Stanley Cup

Compelling, ambitious reads you can’t afford to miss.

When database editor Steven Rich gets involved in an investigation, revelations almost always follow. This week Rich, database editor Ted Mellnik and reporters Wesley Lowery and Kimbriell Kelly delivered a blockbuster look at how often homicides go unsolved in 50 of America's largest and most violent cities. In some neighborhoods in Indianapolis, Baltimore and Omaha, arrests are rarely made. With the help of Post researchers, designers and editors, they mapped and analyzed where those killings occur. Rich, who has worked on two Pulitzer Prize-winning projects in his five years at The Post, said the idea for "Murder with Impunity" began almost two years ago with a story about Chicago's spike in homicides. What he, Lowery and Kelly realized, he said, was that "Chicago was getting really bad at solving homicides." In analyzing 25 years worth of data, Rich learned that the solve rate had fallen from 80 percent in 1991 to 20 percent in 2016. They set out to collect the same data from 49 other police departments. They knew some departments would be more responsible to their public records requests than others. "We didn't think we would get all of them," Rich said. But, to their surprise, they did. What followed were thousands of hours inputting, organizing and fact-checking more than 52,000 homicides. "The hardest part of the project was getting [the information] into the shape it needs to be" in for a deep analysis, said Rich, who has also helped build Post databases on police shootings and school shootings. "A lot of newspapers don't have the resources to do this," Rich said. But what it yields can be groundbreaking.  — Lynda Robinson, Local Enterprise Editor Murder with Impunity: Where killings go unsolved The Post has mapped more than 52,000 homicides in major American cities over the past decade and found that across the country, there are areas where murder is common, but arrests are rare. Wesley Lowery, Kimbriell Kelly, Ted Mellnik and Steven Rich  •   Read more » In the Army and the Klan, he hated Muslims. Now one was coming to his home. Chris Buckley, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan before joining the KKK, despised Muslims and other minorities. Then a Muslim doctor tried to help him change. Steve Hendrix  •   Read more » ‘It was my job, and I didn’t find him’: Stoneman Douglas resource officer remains haunted by massacre Scot Peterson was one of the most decorated deputies in Parkland, Fla. — until a gunman opened fire at school and he stayed outside. Eli Saslow  •   Read more » What happened in Vegas: All night with the Capitals and the Stanley Cup The celebration started when Alex Ovechkin first touched the Cup on the T-Mobile Arena ice, and it continued throughout the night and deep into the morning. Adam Kilgore  •   Read more » China increasingly challenges American dominance of science “China is the best place in the world to start your own laboratory,” said one researcher who left Yale for Beijing. Ben Guarino, Emily Rauhala and William Wan  •   Read more »