At least 11 people were shot and killed during the Labor Day weekend in Chicago. | Chicago Police Department/Facebook
At least 11 people were shot and killed during the Labor Day weekend in Chicago. | Chicago Police Department/Facebook
The city of Chicago saw multiple shooting events over the Labor Day weekend that ended with 11 people dead.
“Most violent Labor Day weekend in 10 years, 14 killed & 45 shot,” mayoral candidate Paul Vallas said on Twitter this week. “Mayor Lightfoot & CPD Supt. Brown in full spin mode claiming murders & shootings down this year, ignoring fact they’re up 33% & 35% since 2019 when she took office. Overall violent crimes up 37% for year. #SummerofJoy”
Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown held a news conference, reporting that shootings and shooting victims were down by 15% and 23%, respectively; a WLS news release said.
Over Labor Day weekend in Chicago, 10 people were murdered and at least 46 others were shot, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The murders included a double homicide on the South Side on Sunday, when two men approached a group on a porch at approximately 6:50 p.m. and opened fire. The shooting left two men—ages 18 and 20—dead and two others—also ages 18 and 20—wounded. The police reported that no suspects were taken into custody for the shooting.
“We’re certain that someone in the community knows who did it,” Brendan Deenihan, Chicago Police Department (CPD) chief of detectives, said in a news conference, quoted by the Sun-Times. “We do have leads we’re following up on, but we definitely need more help.”
The weekend’s youngest shooting victim was a 13-year-old boy, who was shot in the knee as he walked down the sidewalk in Lawndale at approximately 1:30 a.m. on Sunday.
The Block Club Chicago reported shootings and murders were steadily dropping in May, noting that there were 254 reported shootings.
“If we continue to tolerate the level of gun violence that we tolerate, we are going to continue to see residents leave the city,” Roseanna Ander, executive director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab, said in the Block Club Chicago report.
As of Sept. 4, there have been 463 murders; 1,396 criminal sexual assaults; 5,574 robberies; 12,894 thefts; 10,481 motor vehicle thefts; 1,953 shooting incidents and 2,568 transit crimes reported in Chicago this year; data from the CPD showed.
“The last two years have been extraordinarily high when it comes to the rates of gun violence in our city,” Ander added. “There’s a wider safety gap than there’s ever been in our city, between the most safe neighborhoods and the least safe.”
Vallas is one of several challengers seeking to unseat Mayor Lori Lightfoot in the spring 2023 election, NBC 5 Chicago said. Other challengers include state Rep. Kam Buckner (D-South Chicago), CPD officer Frederick Collins, community activist Ja’Mal Green, Ald. Sophia King, Ald. Ray Lopez and Ald. Roderick Sawyer.
Democrat Vallas served as CEO of Chicago Public Schools from 1995 to 2001, NBC 5 Chicago reported. He later went on to head school districts in Philadelphia, Louisiana and Connecticut.
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