Far outpacing previous years on the same weekend, mild weather brought down temperatures but raised gang violence in Chicago, with 53 shootings, which included eight deaths.
As thousands of music fans swarmed Chicago’s downtown area for the annual Lollapalooza music festival, the gangs were making noise of their own in the surrounding neighborhoods, with Friday ringing in with three murders before 7:30 p.m. Eight more were wounded that evening.
Saturday had fewer deaths by one, but more than double the number of shootings, with 19 people shot.
But as is often the case, Sunday was the most dangerous day of the week, with 23 shootings and three more dead, bringing the total to eight killed from the 53 shooting victims during the bloody weekend.
These numbers outpaced previous years by a large margin. In 2015, the tally was 36 wounded and 4 murdered. 2014 saw 25 shot and 5 killed. And while still high, 2013 saw even less violence with 24 wounded and two killed.
The total figures thus far for 2016 are 2,421 total shootings with 364 shot and killed.
Chicago’s murder rate increased slightly over the last decade, according to the Chicago Tribune. In 2005, there were 17.3 murders per 100,000 residents, and today, that number stands at 18.8. But the situation is dire for many African American residents of the Windy City. as the murder rate for blacks jumped from a 2005 rate of 36.1 homicides per 100,000 residents to 46.5 today.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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