Global Courant
More than 70 people were shot, 13 fatally, in Chicago over the holiday weekend, including a father of four who was shot at a large Father’s Day family gathering at the park, police said.
The violence during the Father’s Day and Juneteenth holidays also injured a number of teenagers, including a 14-year-old boy who died after being shot multiple times on a street in the Garfield Park neighborhood on the city’s West Side, according to a review by ABC News of weekend incident reports from the Chicago Police Department.
Police officials said at least 75 people were shot in the city in 51 separate incidents that occurred between 6pm Friday and 11:59pm Monday.
“Every time I read and hear about another life lost to violence, my heart breaks,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said at a news conference Monday. “Fifteen-year-olds, fourteen-year-olds, you all know I’m raising kids in Chicago. It hurts.’
The string of shootings this year came amid a decline in homicides and shootings in Chicago compared to 2022. Prior to the weekend, Chicago’s homicide rate was down 7% from the 257 homicides that occurred in the first half by 2022, according to the Chicago Police Department’s Crime Statistics. Shooting incidents are also down 5% this year compared to this time last year, crime data shows.
View of the Chicago skyline at sunrise.
STOCK PHOTO/Getty Images/
This weekend’s shootings marked one of the most violent holiday weekends this year in Chicago, surpassing Memorial Day weekend when 53 people were shot, 11 of them fatally, in 42 separate incidents across the city, police said. At least 31 people were shot, including four fatally, in 26 separate incidents over the weekend in Chicago, police said.
Father’s Day shooting in the park
Among those killed this weekend was a 32-year-old father of four, identified as Brian Ross, who was shot to death along with another man at a large Father’s Day family gathering at Smith Park in the Roseland community. Ross’ relatives told the ABC station WLS in Chicago that the shots were fired from a passing car, killing Ross and the 37-year-old victim, whose name was not immediately released.
“They literally stopped where they were, opened fire on them, didn’t care if the kids were around or nothing. And, by the grace of God, no kids get hit,” said Ross’s wife, Kandace Ross. “They didn’t care about anything or anyone because there were kids. There were women out there, there were grannies, whoever. They just came and just shot it so they can, I don’t know, brag about it.”
Cmdr. Tyrone Pendarvis of the Chicago Police Department said the shooting occurred just before 8 p.m. and that in addition to the two men shot, three others were hit by gunfire and treated at a hospital.
“It is a pity that this happened today because it was a beautiful day and people were just enjoying their family activities, but violence is rampant in the city and it is a pity that these five individuals were shot,” Pendarvis said at a news conference.
Car-to-car gunfire
A man was killed and three others injured in a shooting Monday in the Ashburn neighborhood on the city’s south side, police said. The victims were in a car when gunmen in another vehicle traveling from the opposite direction opened fire, police said. A 20-year-old man, whose name was not immediately released, was shot in the head and pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
The three other victims, including a 16-year-old boy and a 19-year-old man, were shot and treated at the University of Chicago Medical Center, according to police. Four weapons were recovered at the scene, but no arrests were announced.
Also on Monday, a 32-year-old man was pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital after being shot multiple times at about 7:25 a.m. while driving through the West Garfield neighborhood on the city’s west side, according to police. The circumstances of the shooting remained under investigation on Tuesday and no arrests have been announced.
Fight leads to fatal shooting
Four men were shot, one fatally, near Austin early Sunday after a fight broke out and a fifth man who was fighting pulled and fired and opened fire, police said. The shooting happened just before 3 a.m. in the Austin neighborhood of the city’s West Side. The victim who died, a 31-year-old man, was shot multiple times and taken to Loyola University Medical Center where he was pronounced dead. No arrests were announced.
Among other fatal weekend shootings were a 48-year-old man, who was discovered Saturday with a gunshot wound to the head in the Woodlawn section of the city’s South Side, and a 58-year-old man who was shot and killed at the scene declared, including on the south side of the city, police said.
A 32-year-old man was fatally shot just after 11 p.m. Sunday in the vestibule of a fast-food restaurant in the West Pullman neighborhood of the city’s south side when he got into a physical altercation with the unidentified man who shot him. No arrests have been announced.
