While most of the city spent the weekend celebrating our Declaration of Independence and the birth of our nation, gang violence raged in Chicago, killing three and wounding 37.
Even as the bang of fireworks heralded the evening of the fourth of July in the Windy City, Friday’s gang violence rang out with a vengeance with 22 people wounded on the national holiday.
The first death occurred at 10PM on Friday evening as a young man in his late teens or early 20s drew a pistol to confront police after a foot chase through the Portage Park neighborhood. Police fired their service weapons, killing the man.
Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Pat Camden told the media that the man had a .44 Magnum revolver with an 8-inch barrel.
The shooting in Portage Park was only the first of the weekend with two more eventually being added to the butcher’s bill. One was a 21-year-old woman who was shot in the head.
By the time the hours of Sunday began to tick down closing the weekend, 37 had been wounded and three killed.
Statistics have shown that murders were down during the cold months of February, March and April, but as soon as the weather cleared, over forty deaths each accumulated in May and June.
The Chicago Sun-Times has also noted that Friday, Saturday and Sundays are the most dangerous days of the week with Wednesday giving the weekend a run for its money.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.