AndrewBlakeChicago, IL – Nine people were killed and 29 others were wounded in shootings in Chicago over the Memorial Day weekend, according to WLS-TV.
During a press conference on Tuesday morning, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said “the number of shootings was significantly down from 2016, as well as 2017.”
In 2017, there were seven people killed and 45 people injured in shootings over the Memorial Day weekend. In 2016, eight people were killed and 57 people were wounded over the three-day holiday span, according to WLS.
“We did see some reduction in the holiday violence in comparison to last year. I’m not happy with it of course, I won’t be happy til we have zero murders and zero shootings,” the superintendent said. “But there was some progress made, and I am happy about that. But it just goes to underscore that there’s still a lot more work to be done.”
He told reporters there were 15 arrests in the city over the weekend and that three of them involved gun charges.
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The 38 people were wounded or killed between midnight on Friday and continued through Monday at 11:59 p.m., according to WLS.
“It’s probably been on par for what we’ve experienced in the last few years, a little up here and little down here,” Chief Fred Waller told WLS. “But I’ve been very impressed and very proud of the officers and their hard work.”
A 15-year-old boy was among those wounded over the holiday weekend, according to WLS.
Police said the boy was shot in his back and hips just after 11 p.m. on Sunday night as he was walking towards a car.
Witnesses told police a mini-van pulled up and someone inside shouted a gang-related slogan, and then fired a gun, striking the boy. Police have not yet made any arrests in that incident, WLS reported.
In a separate incident, a young mother was shot and killed by a stray bullet at 1:03 a.m. on Saturday, while sitting on her front doorstep celebrating her two-year-old’s birthday, according to WLS.
Thirty-one year old Jeremy Ross was the first fatal shooting of the holiday weekend.
Ross got out of his car and began to argue with another person near an exit ramp. That person pulled out a gun and shot Ross twice in the chest and once in the head, according to the police.
He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to WLS.
USA Today reported that Chicago has had 191 murders in 2018 as of May 28.