Chicago: At Least 3 Dead, 34 Wounded in Memorial Day Weekend Shootings

Nick Kangadis | June 1, 2021
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Memorial Day weekend is a time in which Americans typically remember the lives that were lost in combat in order to preserve the freedoms that most Americans used to enjoy. It’s not supposed to be a day or weekend where people take more lives, creating reasons to memorialize people killed in shootings in major cities across the country. Alas, three-day weekends are just a cue for criminals to continue their lawless ways by making bad situations worse.

As of this writing, at least three people were murdered and another 34 were wounded in shootings across the Chicagoland area over the weekend, according to CBS 2 - Chicago. This is down from the previous weekend, which saw at least 12 people killed and another 42 wounded. This weekend’s shootings were also down from the previous two Memorial Day weekends, which saw 10 people killed and 38 wounded in 2020 and seven dead and 37 wounded in 2019.

Here are the names and ages of those who lost their lives over the weekend, according to the Chicago Sun-Times:

Curtis Wilson, 40

Mike Alicea, 29

Luis Poole, 26

As for the year-to-date totals for Chicago weekend shootings, 108 people have been murdered and another 553 have been wounded in Chicago in 2021. The Chicago Tribune, which keeps a tracker of all shooting victims in Chicago, is reporting that — as of May 24 — 1,298 people have been shot this year. That number is 291 more than at the same point in 2020, which saw the second most shooting victims in the last 10 years of tracking data.

The Sun-Times also reported that, according to their own data, “shootings are up 36 percent this year compared to the same period in 2020."

The increased police presence this Memorial Day weekend in the form of 12-hour shifts and cancelling days off for Chicago Police Department (CPD) officers might’ve curbed what could’ve been a more violent weekend.

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