At least 11 people were killed and dozens injured in a spate of 50 shootings nationwide over the weekend as America continues to battle a stunning surge in post-coronavirus crime.
Ten mass shootings – defined as those that injure four or more people – were reported across nine states – bringing the total reported this year to 293, according to the Gun Violence Archive. More than 200,000 Americans have died of gun violence so far this year as the nation rebounds from the coronavirus crisis.
Chicago experienced the worst of the weekend violence with a devastating string of 35 separate shootings since Friday that left at least five people dead and 44 others injured.
There were 50 reported shootings throughout the United States this past weekend
The deaths include a 31-year-old man who was shot when a light-colored vehicle pulled up to the sidewalk he was standing on and started firing at him, a 32-year-old woman who was riding in a car on Sunday morning when she was struck by gunfire from another car, and a 21-year-old man who was driving his Jeep on Sunday when a person pulled up next to him and began firing, striking him in the head.
A 28-year-old woman was also shot and killed when she, a 15-year-old boy and a 31-year-old man were standing outside and were fired at from a distance by an ‘unidentified man,’ police NBC 5 Chicago. The woman sustained a gunshot wound to her head and was taken to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead.
The boy, meanwhile, was shot in the right leg and is said to be in good condition, and the 31-year-old man sustained a gunshot wound to the shoulder but refused medical treatment at the scene.
And in another deadly shooting in the city on Saturday night, two individuals were attacked by a group of men after a crash took place at Humboldt Park, prompting a large crowd to surround Gyovanny Arzuaga’s vehicle.
He and his girlfriend, Yasmin Perez, were attending a Puerto Rican People’s Day parade in the park, Newsweek reported, when a group of two or three gunmen ambushed them and opened fire.
A video of the incident, posted to Twitter, purportedly shows Arzuaga surrounded by a group of men, who leave him lying unresponsive on the ground.
Arzuaga, a 24-year-old father of two, sustained an injury to his head and was transported to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead, while Perez sustained a gunshot to her neck and is in critical condition.
Chicago, Illinois: Video from an attach at Humboldt Park purportedly shows a group of men surrounding Gyovanny Arzuaga
Chicago, Illinois: Arzuaga was shot in the head and was pronounced dead at a local hospital
Chicago, Illinois: Arzuaga, 24, could then be seen lying unresponsive on the ground as the crowd disperses
Chicago, Illinois: Arzuaga, right, was attending a a Puerto Rican People’s Day parade in the park on Saturday night with his girlfriend, Yasmin Perez, left. Perez is now in critical condition with a neck wound
Mass shootings, defined as those that injure four or more people, were reported in Atlantic City, New Jersey; Aurora, Colorado; Granger, Indiana; Richmond, Virginia; Anchorage, Alaska; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Dallas, Texas; and Oakland, California.
They resulted in seven deaths, according to CNN, and 45 injuries, and come just one week after another 10 mass shootings were reported across seven stated that killed 12 people and injured 57 more.
The Atlantic City shooting resulted in one person dead and three others injured on Sunday, CNN reports, while the Minneapolis shooting Friday night left five people wounded, three men and two women. Two of them were characterized as having ‘graze’ wounds and the victims were taken to a local hospital. Police are now investigating both of these incidences.
In Aurora, Colorado, police reported receiving at least 50 calls about shots fired at a Juneteenth celebration after 4am Sunday.
One man suffered from a gunshot wound, and was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead, authorities said. Four others – three adult men and one adult woman – suffered non-life threatening injuries.
Evidence collected at the scene indicated that there were multiple shooters, with more than 114 shell casings collected from the scene.
Another Juneteenth shooting occurred in Granger, Indiana, resulting in one death and another four people injured on Sunday.
A 26-year-old man died in the parking lot of a bar that was hosting a ‘Juneteenth Summer Bash,’ according to CNN, while four others sustained non-life threatening injuries.
Evidence collected from that shooting ‘suggests multiple weapons were discharged in the area,’ police said.
Four other people were injured in a quadruple shooting in Richmond, Virginia, on Sunday, two of whom suffered life-threatening injuries, and an early morning shooting in Anchorage, Alaska, left one dead and injured four others.
Anchorage, Alaska: Police investigated an early-morning fatal shooting on Saturday, which left one dead and injured four
Oakland, California: Officers worked the scene of a mass shooting near Lake Merritt where one person was killed and at least seven others were wounded at a Juneteenth celebration
Aurora, Colorado: Police investigated the scene of a shooting that killed one person and injured four others. Evidence collected at the scene suggests there were multiple shooters
In Baton Rouge, an argument between unidentified individuals broke out at around 2 a.m. on Saturday, as partygoers began to leave a concert at a local bar.
Several people started shooting, and six people were struck.
Twenty-five-year-old Kyren Walton and twenty-year-old Ladarius Alexander died from injuries they sustained in the shooting, but the other four are expected to live, NBC reports.
A shooting in Old East Dallas, meanwhile, broke out early Sunday morning following an argument between two groups that were having a party in separate suites at a strip mall. People from each group who were standing outside got into an argument, police said, which led to a ‘physical confrontation,’ after which both groups went back to their respective suites.
They emerged a short time later, police told NBC5 DFW, and starting shooting at each other, striking eight people, including a 10-year-old and a 15-year-old.
One person reportedly required surgery, but other injuries were thought to be non-life threatening. Dallas police are now working to identify the suspects, the local news station reports.
And in Oakland, California, one person was killed and at least seven others were wounded on Saturday when a group of about 1,000 people gathered at Lake Merritt for a Juneteenth celebration. Police were on the scene to monitor the situation, they announced on Facebook, when shots rang out at 6:22 p.m.
Six male victims ranging in age from 16 to 27 and one 21-year-old female suffered gunshot wounds, and a 22-year-old San Francisco resident died.
‘Immediately after the shooting, Oakland Police Officers observed two men running from the scene with firearms,’ the police department announced on Sunday. ‘Both men have been arrested and two firearms recovered.’
Police said it remains unclear whether the two individuals are connected to the shooting, and the Oakland Police Department is now offering up to $40,000 for any information about the mass shooting.
Smaller, but still sometimes fatal, shootings also occurred in Houston, Texas; Wichita, Kansas; Flint, Michigan; Colorado Springs, Colorado; and Coggin, Iowa.
Houston, Texas: Authorities arrived on the scene where a man broke into a deputy’s house and shot his wife and 4-year-old stepdaughter. The woman is reportedly OK and the child needed surgery
Minneapolis, Minnesota: A shooting on Saturday left four people injured, two of whom had ‘graze wounds,’ police said
Granger, Indiana: A shooting broke out in the parking lot of a bar on Sunday morning during a ‘Juneteenth Summer Bash.’ One person was killed and four people were injured in the attack, which police believe involved multiple weapons
The Houston shooting occurred on Sunday morning when a gunman broke into the home of an off-duty police officer and opened fire, striking the officer’s wife in the leg and his 4-year-old stepdaughter in the arm, according to CNN.
The woman was reportedly okay, and the step-daughter required surgery, but was in stable condition.
The police deputy returned fire at the home invader, leaving behind a blood trail, CNN reports, but the search is continuing for the suspect, who was described as a man wearing all black and armed with a shotgun and ‘some kind of assault weapon.’
An investigation into the shooting is still ongoing, police said.
‘We don’t know anything – what’s the motive for this, if it was targeted or what – all we know if he forced entry,’ Police Chief Troy Finner said, adding: ‘Anytime a citizen gets shot in Houston, let alone a deputy’s or officer’s family, it’s something we take seriously, but a lot of investigation has to go on with it.’
In Wichita, an officer-involved shooting left an officer critically injured and a suspected gunman dead, KWCH 12 reports.
Police were responding to a call about a woman in danger Saturday night, authorities said, and upon arrival two officers got in contact with the woman, who reported having a physical altercation with her boyfriend, 28-year-old Tyler Hodge.
She reportedly told the police that she thought he had left, but police said they saw his car parked at the house and began checking the property.
Eventually, the police found him in a shed in the backyard, at which point Hodge allegedly started running towards the officers and fired multiple shots.
He struck one officer, a five-year veteran of the force, multiple times.
‘The injured officer fired multiple times in return and officers pulled him to safety,’ police reported.
Other officers began performing life-saving measures on their fallen colleague, and placed him in a police vehicle to rush him to a local hospital, but Hodge allegedly started shooting at the vehicle, at which point, police said ‘Officers began utilizing suppressive fire to stop Hodge from firing at them.’
By the end, Hodge had fired 18 shots at officers, striking one patrol vehicle, three homes and an officer.
He was pronounced dead at the scene, and police said they found a handgun in the detached shed.
They later learned that Hodge suffered from mental health issues and had previously made statements about wanting to be killed by the police. An investigation is ongoing.
The Gun Violence Archive reports that there have been 20,695 shooting deaths across the country since the year began
A 19-year-old woman was also killed Saturday after exchanging fire with a police officer near a Juneteenth parade in Flint, Michigan, NBC reports, after she allegedly drove to a ‘traffic point’ for the parade and opened fire on the officer.
And in Iowa, police are searching for an armed suspect who fled on foot after shooting a sheriff’s deputy multiple times Sunday night and leaving him with serious injuries.
The suspect allegedly escaped in a van from a general store in Coggin, and was pursued by another deputy before crashing the vehicle and fleeing on foot.
He is described as a black male in his mid-30s who is around 6-feet tall and weighing 120 pounds.
In total, there have been 20,695 shooting deaths across the country since the year began, according to the Gun Violence Archive, with 9,543 people murdered in shootings and 18,246 people injured.
Gun assaults, meanwhile, have increased 22 percent in just the first three months of this year, CNN reported at the time, and homicide rates in more than 30 American cities increased by 24 percent compared to the same time period last year.
Experts blame the increase on a combination of an economic collapse, de-policing in the wake of mass protests following the George Floyd shooting and the release of criminal defendants during the pandemic.
In New York, crime has been up throughout the city, with increases in almost every category since last year.
In May, the New York Police Department reported, crime rates increased 22 percent over last year, with a 46.7 percent increase in robbery and a 35.6 percent increase in grand larceny.
Felony assault saw a 20.5 percent increase, and shootings increased to 173, from 100 in May 2020.
Just recently, police have released new footage of shootings in Queens and in the Bronx, as they try to track down the suspects, and on Thursday in a New York suburb, a male victim was hit in the head with a bottle and stomped on by a group of people that included known gang members.
Video of the incident shows a large group of men crowding around the victim and stomping on him as he falls to the ground. He is later seen laying face down on the side of the street in Yonkers.
Yonkers, New York: Footage shows the moment a group of men, including several gang members, stomped on a victim
Yonkers, New York: He was later seen laying face-down on the side of the road, and is now in critical condition for a brain hemorrhage, broken teeth and swelling to his face and body
Five people are now facing gang assault charges, but police are searching for dozens more as the victim is being treated at a local trauma ward for a brain hemorrhage, broken teeth and swelling to his face and body. He is in critical condition.
It was the third violent incident in the neighborhood in just two months, News 12 reports, and Yonkers Police Department Commissioner John Mueller said he needs help to find the suspects, calling it a ‘community responsibility.’
‘Well over 50 people … saw what happened and we need them to come forward and do the right thing,’ he told LoHud. ‘We can’t do it unless they’re willing to stand with us.’