Chicago Has Deadliest Memorial Day Weekend in 5 Years

Chicago Has Deadliest Memorial Day Weekend in 5 Years
File photo: remnants of crime scene tape remain on a fence. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Tom Ozimek
5/26/2020
Updated:
5/26/2020
Despite Illinois’s mandatory stay-at-home order that allows only limited outdoor activity and bans gatherings of 10 or more, Chicago experienced its deadliest Memorial Day weekend in five years.
Police said 10 people were shot and killed in the city, the highest total since 2015, according to local news outlet NBC5 Chicago.

Authorities said at least 42 others were injured in shootings, including a 15-year-old boy who was taken to hospital in critical condition with multiple gunshot wounds to the face, chest, and abdomen after getting into a verbal argument with a driver.

Chicago police said the first reported homicide of the weekend took place late Friday night, where a 41-year-old man was found with multiple gunshot wounds to his upper and lower body.

Local television station WGN TV News reporter Courtney Gousman, in a clip posted on Twitter, detailed the final shooting of the deadly weekend: “This was the last shooting of Memorial Day Weekend. It was around 11:30 last night, in Humboldt Park on Hamlin, near Augusta. Police tell us three people, a woman, and two men were shot standing outside.”
A Chicago police officer blocks the road to the Adler Planetarium along Lake Michigan in Chicago on March 26, 2020. (Charles Rex Arbogast/AP Photo)
A Chicago police officer blocks the road to the Adler Planetarium along Lake Michigan in Chicago on March 26, 2020. (Charles Rex Arbogast/AP Photo)
Shootings during last year’s Memorial Day Weekend in Chicago claimed seven lives and left 36 others wounded, according to the Chicago Tribune.

It comes after Chicago Police Department Superintendent David Brown on Friday announced the launch of a Summer Operations Center (SOC) to cut down on gun violence and help enforce pandemic-related restrictions.

Brown was cited by the Chicago Tribune as saying that the new initiative, which would see an increase in the number of police patrols, had “the goal of reducing murders and shootings this summer.”

“The SOC will be keeping an eye on the city’s network of cameras and will even add some pop-up camera areas where we anticipate there might be trouble,’’ Brown said, adding that this would better enable Chicago police to be “on the lookout for large gatherings” that are banned under Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s executive order.

A sign advising people to observe social distancing guidelines outside Ford's Chicago Assembly Plant in Chicago, Ill., on May 20, 2020. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
A sign advising people to observe social distancing guidelines outside Ford's Chicago Assembly Plant in Chicago, Ill., on May 20, 2020. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

“Staying in home can be difficult, and many people may want to get fresh air and exercise,” a City of Chicago COVID-19 website states. “The Order allows ‘outdoor activity,’ which includes walking, running, and biking. But the Order also bans gatherings of 10 or more people, as well as people being outdoors without observing social distancing.”

Pritzker, on April 23, announced an extension of the Illinois Stay at Home Order until the end of May, with the City of Chicago calling it “a significant action taken to protect public health.”

“Please be mindful of your neighbors and act with decency in your communities,” the City of Chicago said on its website.

Tom Ozimek is a senior reporter for The Epoch Times. He has a broad background in journalism, deposit insurance, marketing and communications, and adult education.
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