As Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) seemingly infringes on the rights of Chicagoans by forcing them to stay in their homes and off popular walking and biking trails in the city, more and more shootings are occurring on her watch that she seems to avoid on a daily basis. Heck, last Tuesday alone saw seven people, among the 21 people shot, murdered. Each weekend is seeing more and more people shot, despite Lightfoot's edict.
This past weekend, Easter weekend for most Christians, saw three people killed and another 19 wounded in shootings across the Chicagoland area. The previous weekend saw slightly fewer people shot, with two dead and another 18 wounded. The weekend before that saw an equal amount of dead and wounded, with two killed and 18 wounded. It's only getting worse since the weekend three weeks ago saw a relatively low number of weekend shooting victims, with one dead and nine wounded.
Two men were fatally shot just less than two hours apart at one point this past weekend.
Here's their names, along with how they were reportedly killed, according to the Chicago Sun-Times:
Demario Wyatt was in the 5900 block of West Potomac Avenue when someone unleashed gunfire, striking him in the arm and hip, police and the medical examiner’s office said. He was pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital[...]
Ezekiel Moores, 22, was found in the 5500 block of South Ashland Avenue with a gunshot wound to the neck, police and the medical examiner’s office said. He was pronounced dead at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
The third person fatally shot this past weekend was 29-year-old Lamarcus Milligan.
MRCTV's running total for Chicago weekend shootings in 2020 is now up to at least 46 dead with another 238 wounded. The Chicago Tribune tracker for all shootings in the city, regardless of the day of the week, is reporting that 550 people have been victims of shootings as of April 7th. That number is 64 more than at the same point in 2019.
As for Lightfoot, who deflected blame from herself, Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker and other Chicago politicians for the poor response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the city, she decided to place the blame at the feet of the people in late March.
"Your conduct — yours — is posing a direct threat to our public health. And without question, your continued failure to abide by these life-saving orders will erase any progress that we have made over the past week in slowing the spread of this disease and could lead to more deaths," Lightfoot said on March 26.
That statement was exactly one month after Lightfoot accused the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of causing a panic over COVID-19.
"I will candidly tell you that I was very disappointed with the comments of the CDC yesterday and members of the Trump administration around coronavirus," Lightfoot said on February 26.
Lightfoot dug the hole even deeper for herself by downplaying the potential impact of the disease a few sentences later, because - at the time - there were only two reported cases of COVID-19 in Chicago.
"Am I gonna sit here and say with absolute certainty that we won’t have any other cases? No. I will not," Lightfoot continued. "But I want to make sure that people understand they should continue to go about their normal lives."
Fast forward a few weeks later, and Lightfoot had no problem blaming the outbreak in Chicago on the people instead of herself for telling them to "go about their normal lives."
Well, even with Lightfoot's most recent edict of ordering people to stay in their homes, criminals in Chicago didn't seem to get the memo as they continue to "go about their normal lives" - you know, shooting and killing people.
Here's a CBS Chicago report from a few days ago that talks about the lack of impact COVID-19 is having on slowing the amount of shootings in Chicago: