The violence in Chicago rose to fever-pitch level again over the weekend, with 32 wounded and four killed. While most of these shootings are gang-on-gang warfare, on Friday, the Chicago Police were involved in a shooting that wounded a 16-year-old.
The comparatively rare police-involved shooting was one of the first shootings to kick off the violent weekend, as police came across a group of teens standing on the street in the South Side’s Englewood district.
When one of the teens saw the police, he ran but, as the CPD pursued him, at one point he turned and allegedly pointed a gun at them. Police responded by firing at the teen, wounding him. He is listed in serious to critical condition.
Police were also involved in another shooting on Thursday in which a 14-year-old boy was wounded in another South Side neighborhood.
But, as in the majority of shootings in the Windy City, the rest of the incidents were gang-involved shootings of other gang members.
As to those killed, two lost their lives on Saturday. At about 5 AM a 34-year-old was found dead in Garfield Park, and the second killed was an 18-year-old shot at 9:30 PM. Two more were killed on Sunday, a 21-year-old killed at 1 PM, and a 19-year-old killed after 7 PM on Sunday evening.
So far this year, 1,869 have been wounded with 314 total homicides in Chicago. By this time last year, only 277 had been killed. However, 2012 is still the bloodiest year since 2009 with 349 having been killed by this time.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston, or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.