The weather in Chicago was wonderfully mild this weekend, with a cool breeze, bright sun and temperatures in the upper 70s. Unfortunately, with the nice weather, a large number of shootings broke out with an average of one shooting every 33 minutes during one 14-hour period. While early reports showed fewer incidents, the final total saw eight dead and 50 shot.
The youngest victim over the weekend was a seven-year-old girl shot in the wrist in an incident in the city’s Austin neighborhood. The girl was injured along with a 40-year-old woman who was with her.
There were at least two other children under 18 shot over the weekend. One was killed.
Also dead is a 14-year-old boy caught up in what police are calling a gang-related incident which occurred around 4 a.m. Sunday, also in the Austin neighborhood.
There were so many shootings this weekend that during a 14-hour period, spanning Saturday night into Sunday morning, one person was shot every 33 minutes, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The weekend’s violence also included a comparatively uncommon police-involved shooting and in this weekend’s case it was even more uncommon in that it was an Illinois State Trooper involved in the incident.
The state police are responsible for patrolling the several highways which course through the heart of the Windy City and late on Saturday night an alleged car jacking led to a confrontation with State Troopers on the Dan Ryan Expressway on the city’s south side.
Two suspects were arrested on the spot but, after being wounded in the neck by state officers, a third suspect temporarily escaped. The wounded suspect, a 15-year-old boy, was later tracked down by Chicago Police and taken to a hospital. He is in stable condition.
The weekend’s violence tops that of the same weekend over the previous two years. In 2015, only 35 were shot and seven killed. In 2014, the same amount were killed as this weekend, but there were a total of six fewer shootings.
The statistics bring the number shot in Chicago to 2,740 total victims thus far this year with 420 shot and killed.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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