Six people were killed and 23 were injured in Chicago gun violence over Labor Day weekend.
A graduate student attending Northwestern University was killed in the crossfire of a Sept. 2 shooting between two people. Shane Colombo was set to enter the Psychology program for Ph.D. study. He was from Sun City, California, and was moving to Chicago from New York, where he was a researcher at Columbia University, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
In the early morning hours of Sept. 2, police found Norris Anderson, 41, lying on the street with a man standing over him. He had been playing dice in a home when a fight broke out. Police attended to Anderson and also followed a van the suspected shooter had boarded. Police saw the shooter flee after the van stopped, the Chicago Tribune reported. Anderson later died in hospital.
The violence occurred despite 1,400 additional police on the street, NBC Chicago reported. Despite the tragedies, its considered the lowest level of violence in five years, according to the Chicago Tribune.
A 30-year-old woman died after being shot in the back of the head on Sept. 1. The shooter approached the group she was with and opened fire. Police do not yet know if she was the intended target, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
A masked gunman approached a group and opened fire in another incident just blocks away, 20 minutes before the 30-year-old woman was shot. Roley Johnson III, 32, died from a gunshot wound to the neck. Another man in the group was shot in the wrist and survived, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Three people were shot and one died on Aug. 31 when a shooter approached and opened fire on a group standing on the sidewalk. The 18-year-old was shot in the chest and head and died. A man and woman in their 20s were also shot but survived, although the man is in critical condition, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
In an earlier shooting that same day, a 21-year-old woman was killed and a 20-year-old man was wounded in gunfire, the Sun-Times reported.
Two girls age 11 and 17 were hit with gunfire from a passing car on Sept. 2, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Three teenagers were sitting on a car that was a graduation gift for one of them on the night of Sept. 3 when they were shot. The shooting took place in a location known for gangs, but none of the victims were members of gangs, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Superintendent Eddie Johnson is joined by Chicago Police Command staff, detailing weekend crime statistics.
Posted by Chicago Police Department on Monday, August 20, 2018
When asked about the gun violence that occured earlier in August, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson’s response was less than optimistic.
“We look at crime every day, every hour, and we readjust, readjust, readjust. But there is only so much the police can do. We cannot be on every street corner of this city, every moment of the day. We just can’t. That’s an impossibility,” he said at a press conference posted to the department’s Facebook page.
Johnson blames Chicago’s gun problem on soft punishment for offenders and an epidemic problem with illegal guns. He says the violence problem is not due to people in Chicago as a whole, but within “a small subset of individuals” who continue to face little punishment for their actions. citing the soft repeat gun offender laws.
He advised against comparisons to New York and Los Angeles, stating that Chicago’s illegal gun problem is worse.
