A Violent Weekend Across Chicago
A bloody weekend of shootings across Chicago has left 53 wounded and 10 dead. The shooting spree started between 10 a.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. Sunday.
Out of 53 victims, 15 were teenagers. According to media reports, 25 people were shot on Sunday in a two and a half hour period, gaining Chicago weekend its reputation as “a war zone.”
According to Police, the shootings have been random, some targeted and related to gang conflicts.
The Chicago Police department launched a massive probe to search for the shooters.
“Detectives are working around the clock to investigate the incidents, build a timeline of events and identify any shooter,” said Chicago Police Chief of Patrol Fred Waller. “We’ll also be conducting coordinated enforcement missions to target individuals that are driving the violence in these areas and focus on where we believe retaliatory violence may occur.”
The CPD said a majority of the shootings took place in the sixth, tenth and 11th districts and gunmen launched a shooting rampage into large crowds.
The Random Shootings
Around 11 a.m. Saturday, a 38-year-old man was shot in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood.
Between 1:30 and 5:30 p.m. Saturday, three men – ages 25, 26 and 22 – were shot in separate incidents throughout Chicago.
Gunmen are still at large relating to these series of attacks.
On the next day, violence continued to alarm the neighbouring community. By 1 a.m. Sunday another 18 people were shot.
A 20-year-old woman suffered a gunshot wound in the stomach when a passenger shot her in the stomach just after midnight in Logan Square.
At 4 a.m. in the 1600-block of North LeClaire Avenue, a 19-year-old was shot in the back of the head and pronounced dead at the scene.
About five miles away in Lawndale, two people got out of a vehicle, fired at a crowd of people at a block party and escaped. Police said four people were struck, including a 13-year-old and 17-year-old boy, along with a 17-year-old girl. A man, 25, was shot in the left leg.
Later Sunday morning, four people were shot, one fatally, in the North Austin neighborhood.
Gun Violence in Chicago
Gun violence is not a rare occurrence in Chicago. However, the number of shootings in Chicago has decreased this year, according to the Tribune, which records incidents of gun violence in the city.
By Aug. 1, 1,691 people have been shot in the city. This a reduction of 532 since Aug. 1, 2017, and a drop of 746 since the same point in 2016.
But residents of the state have had enough of this violence. In fact, last month, thousands of protestors blocked an interstate highway calling for an end to gun violence in the city.
