CHICAGO — Mayor Lori Lightfoot gave a blunt assessment of anti-violence tactics used over a Memorial Day weekend in Chicago where 49 people were shot and 10 died: “it was a fail.”
“Whatever the strategy was – it didn’t work… We cannot have the weekends in the summer turn into a bloodbath,” Lightfoot said Tuesday.
Despite a statewide stay-at-home order, this Memorial Day weekend turned out to be the most violent the city of Chicago has seen since 2015.
It was the first holiday weekend for new Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown. Like police superintendents before him, he blamed the violence on drugs and gangs.
“These incidents primarily involved disputes between rival gang factions as well as clashes involving the sale of illegal drugs,” Brown said. “This was a challenging weekend… but we are not giving up on our city.”
From Friday afternoon to midnight Tuesday, a total of 49 people were shot, 10 fatally.
Saturday morning, a 15-year-old boy was killed after being shot multiple times at 76th and Exchange after an argument with the driver of an SUV, according to police. On Sunday morning, a 21-year-old man died after being shot in the head on Drake and Augusta, also in Humboldt Park.
Early Monday morning, a 15-year-old girl was grazed in the leg while standing at 120th and Wallace. Then around 11:30 p.m. Monday, police said a woman and two men were shot while standing outside on Hamlin near Augusta in Humbolt Park.
Source: wgntv.com