Summer violence in Chicago claimed another nine lives this weekend.
At least 41 people were shot, including the nine fatalities, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The weekend’s violence did not break a grim pattern that has lasted all summer, despite pledges from the city’s new Democrat mayor to get the crisis under control.
Nine shot dead in Chicago over the weekend
The first killing occurred in the early evening Friday. Raymond A. Hicks, 31, was shot dead just before 6 p.m. with bullets to the head and chest. He was found dead in a Chatham alley.
Early Saturday morning, George Bingham, 57, was shot dead around 2:20 a.m. outside the New Parie hotel in Garfield Park on the West Side. A witness said they saw the victim lying on the ground next to a 2008 Chrysler minivan.
A drive-by shooting attack on a group of five people around 3 a.m. claimed the life of 24-year-old Daquan Cathary. The Gresham shooting wounded four other people, one of whom was left in critical condition.
Half an hour later, Byron Ruiz, 36, was found dead on the porch of a home in Pilsen with several gunshot wounds. Later Saturday, two men were killed in a double shooting around 11 p.m. in South Chicago. Matthew Mason, 26, and Maurice Jackson, 31, were shot dead in a vehicle around 11 p.m.
A man was killed on the West Side in Lawndale around 3:30 a.m. Sunday. Jermaine King, 26, was killed with a shot to the chest. Hours later, 22-year-old Jessie L. Curry was shot dead in the West Side neighborhood of Austin around 6 a.m.
The last weekend fatality occurred before 2 p.m. Sunday. An unidentified 26-year-old was shot dead in the back in South Shore. A 32-year-old man who was with him was left in critical condition from gunshot wounds.
Chicago simmers
All told, at least 26 other people were wounded from early Friday evening to dawn on Monday. The weekend’s violence continued a trend of deadly shootings in the city that has not stopped all summer.
At least 66 people were shot, 5 fatally, through July 4th weekend. The weekend before that, at least 56 were shot, four fatally, Breitbart reported.
Chicago has a notorious gun crime problem, and the carnage tends to get worse during the summer months. This year has proven no exception.
The summer violence has been a challenge for the city’s new mayor, Lori Lightfoot, who vowed to end it. Lightfoot flooded the streets with officers working overtime on the July 4th and Memorial Day weekends, but the extra police presence didn’t prevent the carnage: more than 40 people were shot, 7 fatally, over Memorial Day weekend.
Lightfoot has accused police of failing to win the trust of neighborhoods struggling with crime.
“Showing up when there’s a murder or a shooting or any other violent act and being the first time you’ve set foot in a neighborhood, without knowing any of the people, the relevant stakeholders, you’re never going to win the trust of the community that way to be able to solve crimes, because they’re not going to view you as legitimate,” Lightfoot said.
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