CHICAGO -- The city of Chicago has experienced another bloody and violent weekend as six people were fatally shot and 27 others were wounded by gunfire.
Officers responded to two dozen separate shooting incidents from 6 p.m. Friday to 11:59 p.m. Sunday, according to major incident notifications released Monday.
The incidents included the slaying of one man and wounding of four others early Saturday as they stood on a sidewalk and the wounding of three people, including two women, Saturday night on Chicago’s South Side when gunfire rang out from an alley at a group of people.
A 16-year-old boy was found on a sidewalk and pronounced dead at a hospital after being shot multiple times Friday night. The teen was identified as Rashaun Hood, grandson of community activist Robin Hood.
“I want the community to remember that he was a basketball player. He stayed on the honor roll at school. He was just like any other youth,” Hood told WGN-TV. “We have got to tell on these killers and we cannot let them roam freely."
Weekend violence has plagued the city in recent years. This Memorial Day weekend more than 40 people were shot, including nine fatally.
But the numbers in Chicago reflect a national trend that is seeing homicides decrease so far this year, while some crimes, like motor vehicle theft, are on the rise.
Homicides on average dropped 9.4% during the first half of 2023 as compared to the same period last year, the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice found in a report released last week.
The report is based on crime data posed online by police departments in 37 cities of varying sizes around the country. Several of the nation’s largest cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, are represented. Of the cities that did post crime data online, 30 included homicide numbers and 20 of those showed declines.
Through July 16, Chicago police reported 331 murders compared to 355 over the same period in 2022, according to Chicago Police Department crime statistics. Year-to-date shootings in the city also were down from 1,407 in 2022 to 1,314 this year.
Chicago tallied 695 murders and 2,832 shootings through all of 2022.
However, other major crimes in the city have increased from Jan. 1 through July 16, led by motor vehicle theft which leaped from 7,074 through July 16, 2022, to more than 15,990 so far this year.
In early June, activists gathered outside Chicago City Hall asking Mayor Brandon Johnson to sign an executive order declaring violence a public health crisis in the city.