In a year of relentless violence, Chicago has hit another gruesome milestone, exceeding 700 homicides on Wednesday for the first time in nearly two decades, according to official Police Department records.

The 700-mark was hit when a 25-year-old man was fatally shot about 6:20 a.m. at 93rd Street and Cottage Grove Avenue in the Burnside neighborhood, said Frank Giancamilli, a police spokesman.

Then at about 8 p.m., a 24-year-old man was shot and killed at 6800 block of South Cornell Avenue in the South Shore neighborhood, he said.

Police Department statistics do not include killings on area expressways, police-involved shootings, other justifiable homicides or death investigations that could later be reclassified as homicides. …