With 55 shootings and five deaths, the weekend in Chicago was particularly bloody, so much so that Sunday marked itself as having the most shootings in a single day in over a year.
Friday rang in with nine shootings and one death at around 3 PM. One of the shooting incidents included no less than three victims in the same incident.
Saturday brought two more gangland shooting deaths and one police-involved shooting. But the day also saw 21 shootings total, of which one incident included four victims and three other incidents, which included two victims each.
But it was Sunday that brought out the worst gunfire, with a whopping 33 shootings and five more deaths.
The high number of shootings was topped only by last year’s 34 shootings which occurred on July 5, 2015.
Along with the massive number of shootings in that one day, four of the incidents had two victims each.
Police also responded Sunday to a house party in the Austin neighborhood that devolved into a shooting gallery where two men ending up wounded.
The massive bloodletting came on the heels of a bloody week which saw 78 shot and ten killed between Monday and Friday afternoon.
First Deputy Superintendent John Escalante commented on one of the deaths, saying that in a particular way the justice system failed the victim.
Raygene Jackson, 38, was murdered on Sunday, but according to Escalante, he should have still been safely in jail and not walking the streets.
“I don’t mean to victimize this victim any further, this man lost his life,” Escalante said. “But our frustration is, in 1995 he was sentenced to 46 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for a murder. In 1995. He was paroled last year. How and why he’s on the street, I don’t know. But if he was still serving his sentence, he wouldn’t be a murder victim right now.”
The bloody weekend raises the odious totals to 2,218 citizens shot this year thus far, with 330 shot and killed.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
