The number just keeps growing. The number I’m talking about is the distance between the amount of Chicago shooting victims there have been in 2020 as compared to 2019. The disparity has been growing slowly, but it’s been growing nonetheless.
The Chicago Tribune, who compiles shooting victim numbers for all days of the week, reported that — as of February 19 — 275 people have been shot in 2020. That number is 56 more than at the same point in 2019.
When I reported on Chicago shootings last week, the disparity in shooting victims between 2020 and 2019 stood at 42 more in 2020. In just eight days, the difference rose 33 percent.
Unfortunately, the numbers above do not include this past weekend’s violence.
As for this past weekend’s shootings, five people were murdered and another 17 have been wounded in shootings across the Chicagoland area. This past weekend’s number of victims is down slightly from the previous weekend when three people were killed and another 23 were wounded.
Here are those that lost their lives this past weekend, along with their age:
Vashon Simmons, 44
Latonia Williams, 50
Out of the shootings victims that have so far survived their wounds, two are teenagers (16 & 17).
This weekend’s shootings have brought MRCTV’s running tally of 2020 Chicago weekend shootings to at least 32 people killed and another 123 wounded.