Half of homicide victims in London so far in 2021 are black, Scotland Yard chief Dame Cressida Dick has revealed.
Dame Cressida said the figures were “hugely out of proportion” with the capital’s population.
But she insisted tackling violent crime “is her number one priority”.
The Met Commissioner was challenged on LBC by a caller who said not enough was being done.
Of 40 victims, 19 were black. Twenty-one of the total number killed are under 25.
Dame Cressida said there had been 14 teenage victims, just one short of the 15 killed in 2020. It puts London on course to overtake the figure of 26 in 2019.
Last week Friday, aspiring plumber Daniel Laskos, 16, was the 13th to be knifed to death.
A 14-year-old also died in a house fire started deliberately in Russett Way, Lewisham on March 6.
Host Nick Ferrari told Dame Cressida: “You know as well as I do that is not going to stay below 14 and this is a year we’ve not been able to leave our homes?”
She replied: “It’s horrific… utterly appalling and some of these are very young teenagers.
“The vast majority of people accused of this are also teenagers and you will be aware this affects some communities more than others.
“If I look at victims of homicide this year, of the total 40, 19 of those come from our black African-Caribbean communities. Of course, that is hugely out of proportion with London.
“And when you look at the accused, you’re talking about 60-70 per cent coming from our black communities. Some geographic areas are far more prone to this than others.”
Last year, the Met had a 96 per cent detection rate for homicide, she said.
She also told LBC Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, schemes that use bollards and planters to dissuade through traffic on smaller residential streets, sometimes make it “harder” for officers to get to their destinations as quickly as they previously could.
