Nine people were killed, including a 9-year-old boy and 25 others were wounded in shootings across Chicago this weekend.
The month of July saw a 139% surge in citywide murders compared to the same month last year, according to police statistics. Last weekend, 59 people were shot throughout the city, three of them fatally, Chicago Sun Times reports.
Police statistics show, from Jan. 1 through the end of July, there were 440 homicides in Chicago and 2,240 people were shot, a number that includes those killed.
The latest fatal shooting occurred early Sunday, when two men were killed as they sat in a vehicle parked on Chicago’s West Side. Both were shot multiple times in the head, according to police.
The first reported fatal shooting of the weekend occurred Friday evening in the Cabrini-Green neighborhood, where 9-year-old Janari Ricks was playing when he was fatally shot in the chest. Police said the boy was not the intended target. No arrests have been made in that case.
“He wanted to help rebuild the community, rebuild something that the kids can enjoy later down the line,” the boy’s mother, Jalisa Ford told the Chicago Sun-Times. “It’s gone, it’s taken away.”
AP reported, “Homicides and shootings have surged in Chicago during the first seven months of the year. The 440 homicides and 2,240 people shot by the end of this July compares to 290 homicides and 1,480 shootings in Chicago in the same period last year.”
Since June, several children have been killed from gun violence in Chicago.
Sincere Gaston, Mekhi James, Natalia Wallace, Lena Nunez, Amaria Jones and Vernando Jones Junior are among those under 15-years-old who have lost their lives.