Chicago

4 Wounded in Shootings to Open Memorial Day Weekend

Last year, 15 people were shot during the first night of the long holiday weekend, which is widely viewed as the unofficial start of summer — with an accompanying surge in city gun violence.

Four people were wounded in separate shootings from Friday night into Saturday, marking a relatively calm opening to Memorial Day weekend in Chicago. 

Last year, 15 people were shot during the first night of the long holiday weekend, which is widely viewed as the unofficial start of summer — with an accompanying surge in city gun violence. 

By the end of that weekend, 69 people had been shot, leaving 6 dead. Twelve people were killed and 43 wounded over 2015’s holiday. 

To combat this year’s anticipated carnage, Chicago Police are flooding the streets with 1,300 extra patrol officers through early Tuesday. 

That happens to be about the same number of people who have been shot in the city so far this year: 1,291, according to Chicago Sun-Times data. Of those, 222 have died. 

The latest attack happened about 2:30 a.m. Saturday in the West Side Lawndale neighborhood, where two men were in a car driving in the 2000 block of South Marshall when someone in another vehicle opened fire, police said. One man, 26, was shot in the shoulder, and a bullet grazed the shoulder of the other man, 18. They were taken to Mount Sinai Hospital and their conditions were stabilized, police said. 

About 15 minutes before that, a 32-year-old man was sitting in a car in Gresham’s 1200 block of West 79th Street when another vehicle pulled up and someone shot him in the forearm. He took himself to Holy Cross Hospital and his condition was stabilized, police said. 

The first shooting of the weekend happened in the same South Side neighborhood, about 7:15 p.m. on Friday in the 1800 block of West 87th Street. An 18-year-old man was walking when someone shot him in the hand, police said. He showed up at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park and his condition was stabilized.

Copyright CHIST - SunTimes
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