Fifty-two people – that’s 52, for those who thought I’d miswritten – were shot in the gun-free city of Chicago over Memorial Day weekend, adding to the bloodbath that’s flowed through the Windy City over the past decade.
According to reports, 10 of those shooting victims died from their injuries. The horrific death toll comes even after the Chicago Police Department reportedly canceled officers’ days off to make sure there were enough cops on the street to respond to the anticipated uptick in violence.
The weekend’s gun violence included two mass shootings (generally understood to be incidents in which three or more people are shot), including one event in which a gunman opened fire on a crowd that was commemorating the anniversary of the shooting death of a teenager. Five people were wounded, including a 16-year-old girl.
A 24-year-old man was shot and killed when someone fired into a birthday party in Englewood early Sunday.
So far this year, 220 people have been shot to death in Chicago, according to a homicide counter from the Chicago Sun-Times.