The plague of gang-related gun violence is ongoing in the Windy City as it is being reported that over 100 people were shot over the long holiday weekend.
It was a relatively normal weekend as far as carnage goes until an explosion of violence over a 12-hour period on the Fourth of July as the liquor flowed more freely and tempers flared like fireworks.
More than 100 were shot in Chicago during the long 4th of July weekend, nearly half of them over 12 hours. 14 died. https://t.co/CPQTTMCSAz pic.twitter.com/oaSCfQXh8D
— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) July 5, 2017
The Chicago Tribune is reporting “More than 100 people shot in Chicago over long Fourth of July weekend”:
Chicago saw one of its most violent Fourth of July weekends in recent years: At least 101 people were shot between Friday afternoon and early Wednesday, nearly half of them over 12 hours as the long holiday drew to a close. Fifteen of the wounded died.
The last time the Fourth holiday spanned four full days was in 2013, when July 4 fell on a Thursday and many people had Friday off. At least 74 people were shot between Wednesday evening and early Monday that year, and 12 of them died, according to Tribune data.
The violence this year was largely confined to the South and West sides, including districts where the department has installed what it calls strategic decisions support centers and predictive technology. Hundreds of officers on overtime were also deployed to those districts.
The youngest person shot over the weekend was a 13-year-old boy seriously wounded in Gage Park on Friday night. The oldest person shot was a 60-year-old man in the Lawndale neighborhood.
The weekend had been relatively calm by early Tuesday afternoon when police Superintendent Eddie Johnson announced the arrests of 58 people on drug and gun charges “to keep residents and visitors safe in every neighborhood.”
But within hours, violence erupted in nearly every police district south of North Avenue, according to data kept by the Tribune. At least 42 people were shot between 3:30 p.m. Tuesday and 3:30 a.m. Wednesday.
President Trump just announced last week that federal agents would be dispatched to the city in an effort to get the violence under control:
Crime and killings in Chicago have reached such epidemic proportions that I am sending in Federal help. 1714 shootings in Chicago this year!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 30, 2017
They can’t get there soon enough for the Chicago police.
