A staggering 56 people were shot – five fatally – in Chicago over the last weekend of June, while police said shootings have hit a ‘four-year low’.
In the first 12 hours alone, between Friday at 5 p.m. and Saturday at 5 a.m., one person was killed and 20 others injured in gun violence, according to the Chicago Sun Times.
The bloodshed comes just weeks after the city’s worst weekend of ‘gang-related’ shootings so far this year as ten people were killed and dozens injured.
The youngest victim was 17-year-old Jarise Baker, who was shot and killed early Saturday in the North Lawndale neighborhood, according to CBS Chicago.
Jarise Baker, 17, was the youngest victim of the weekend’s gun violence. He was shot six times by someone driving past early on Saturday, according to CBS Chicago
Police at the scene where Jarise Baker was gunned down in the North Lawndale neighborhood. Baker was walking his girlfriend home around 12:30 a.m. near 18th and Keeler
The teenager and his girlfriend were walking home at around 12:30 a.m. in the North Lawndale neighborhood when a car passed by and shot them both.
Baker was shot six times in the chest and upper body, and died at Mount Sinai Hospital.
His girlfriend was wounded in the arm.
Baker’s family told CBS Chicago he was new to the neighborhood and was not involved in gangs or drugs.
‘We’re going to be on the police every day, all day, until we get answers for my nephew, because he doesn’t deserve it,’ his aunt Alicia Baker told the channel.
The Chicago Sun Times reported that police said another fatal shooting involved an 18-year old.
Juan Pimentel, of Hammond, Indiana, was arguing with another man in an alley at around 11:13 p.m. on Saturday in the 6000 block of South Komensky Avenue in West Lawn when the man pulled out a gun and fired several rounds before running off.
The teenager was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn with multiple gunshot wounds and later died.
Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson announced on Monday the latest crime statistics, which come on the heels of a weekend that saw 56 people shot in the city. He said shootings are on the decline overall through the end of June
Chicago police released crime statistics on Monday, which showed there that fewer people have been shot so far this year
Another man was killed after being shot in the head and the back in Gresham on the city’s South Side, on the same block on which he lived.
Andre Lyons, 32, was on a street at 2:05 p.m. on Saturday in the 7600 block of South Aberdeen Street when an unknown person shot him to death, according to the Chicago Sun Times.
Earlier, residents in the 3200 block of West Huron Street in East Garfield Park heard shots and found Tavaris Trimble, 26, unresponsive in a gangway, authorities said.
He had three gunshot wounds and police recovered a weapon near the body.
More than 240 guns were turned in to Chicago Police on Saturday at the department’s Gun Turn-In event, according to a Twitter post
Police responding to gun violence this past weekend across Chicago. In the first 12 hours alone, between Friday at 5 p.m. and Saturday at 5 a.m., one person was killed and 20 others injured in gun violence
Chicago Police Department Superintendent Eddie Johnson held a press conference on June 3 and said the killings that weekend – when ten people were killed and dozens injured – had been gang and drug related
Another man was shot dead in the same area on Friday at 7:20 p.m. in the 3200 block of West Walnut Street.
Henry Daniels, 52, was shot in the abdomen, leg and back and later died in hospital.
In non-fatal gun violence, someone opened fire on a group op people gathered at around 2:32 a.m. in the Near West Side on Saturday, injuring five of them.
A 22-year-old woman suffered a gunshot wound to her leg, two 28-year-old men were shot in the leg and back and a 54-year-old man was hit in the back, but all had their conditions stabilized, according to the Chicago Sun Times.
A 49-year-old woman who was shot in the chin is in serious condition.
A 40-year-old man who was shot in the head, leg, and ankle; and a 30-year-old woman who was shot in the eye, leg, and shoulder are both in critical condition at Advocate Christ Medical Center, according to CBS Chicago.
They were shot outside a 7-Eleven convenience store near 61st and Kedzie when someone in an SUV drove up and unleashed fire.
On the heels of the weekend of bloodshed, Chicago Police announced that shootings in the city have hit a four-year low.
The department released crime statistics on Monday, saying shootings are on the decline overall through the end of June.
So far this year, 1,229 people have been shot in the city, around a hundred fewer than in the first six months of last year, and the lowest total since 2015.
Police also said 236 people have been killed so far this year, 21 fewer than in the same time period last year.
Areas including Austin, Jefferson Park and Lakeview have seen the largest reductions in shootings this year, with decreases of 40%, 50% and 44%, respectively, according to police.
Officials have credited gun recovery efforts, saying the department is on track to seize more than the nearly 10,000 illegal firearms they took in last year.
Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said at a press conference that while he is not happy with the numbers, they are a step in the right direction.
‘The results thus far are certainly no cause for celebration, but rather serve as our guide for where we want to be as a city and as a Department,’ he said.
Authorities also announced new measures to help solve and fight crime, including new technology to help access cell phone videos faster.
Johnson said this has been a problem for detectives, depending on the carrier.
Another new tool, ‘Gun Data’, helps track gun offenders from their arrest throughout the legal process.
‘We’ll monitor that individual from beginning to end, to see what consequence and how effective that consequence is for that particular individual,’ Johnson said.
Police also said the department’s clearance rate on murder cases – the percentage of cases in which detectives arrest or identify a suspect – is currently 51 percent.
In 2017, the city had only a 17 percent clearance rate on murders.
But the violence on the city’s streets this past weekend came just weeks after 52 people shot on the first June weekend.
At a press conference on June 3, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said there had been ‘a despicable level of violence’.
He said: ‘Weekends like this remind us all of the challenges that we face and that they are complex and profound.’
He hit out at the ‘multiple gang-related attacks’ from Friday night that was part of an increase in violence particularly on the west side of the city.
While calling on support from the community, Superintendent Johnson said: ‘We take these shootings seriously, and there is a heightened sense of urgency and care when it comes to gun violence in this city.’