During the July 4 weekend, more than 60 people were killed in the city.
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CHICAGO has recorded its deadliest month in two decades in August as part of a sharp rise in gun violence in the nation’s third-largest city this year.
And there are two days left in the month.
The city hasn’t seen a month with 80 or more homicides since October of 1996, which logged 85.
Chicago, which has already recorded 462 murders this year, according to police department data, hasn’t experienced this level of violence since the late 1990s and early 2000s when the city recorded 600 or more murders annually.
Over the last six years, police in Chicago, Illinois have fired 2,623 bullets at citizens, killing 92 people and injuring 170 others, according to a new database by the Chicago Tribune.
Ninety homicides, 384 shooting incidents, 472 shooting victims – that terrible arithmetic made August the deadliest month in Chicago in almost 20 years.
Chicago has recorded more homicides this year than New York City and Los Angeles combined.
By Wednesday morning, 425 people had been fatally shot so far this year in Chicago-accounting for 91% of the total murders in the city.
And as the city was digesting those grim statistics, there was a triple shooting in broad daylight Thursday on the west side that sent two adults and a 10-year-old girl to the hospital. He was among 19 people shot that day, nine of whom were killed, making it the bloodiest day in 13 years for the city.
The Harrison District covers a lot of the Lawndale neighborhood, where Tavon lives. “Go to hell, Angelo”, he said.
Her death sparked an outcry – beginning on Twitter from Wade, an National Basketball Association star with the Chicago Bulls.
Lucy McBath is the mother of Jordan Davis, who was shot and killed at a gas station in Jacksonville, Florida, on November 23, 2012, during an argument over loud music.
Tavon’s twin sister started school last week without her brother. “I felt his last heartbeat”.
“Oh, I’m real exhausted”, she said.
According to the report, officer-involved shootings primarily occurred in areas on the South and West sides of Chicago where crime is prevalent.
Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson joined WGN Morning News Thursday, and says the numbers are frustrating. Last month, there were a total of 384 shooting incidents and 472 shooting victims, police said.
The horror that is happening in Chicago is spreading to other cities as well. The uptick in violence comes as the black community’s relationship with police has become increasingly strained following the court-ordered release a year ago of police video that showed a white officer shooting a black teen 16 times. Murder charges were filed against Van Dyke, the head of the police oversight agency resigned and the U.S. Department of Justice began a wide-ranging civil rights investigation into the department. “It’s primarily being driven by gang-related activity, and the fact that criminals in these communities believe they are less likely to be stopped by police so they are choosing to carry guns”, former USA counterterrorism official, John Cohen told ABC News.
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Jeremy Gorner, Peter Nickeas and Elvia Malagon write for the Chicago Tribune.
