Fourth of July Weekend Shootings in Chicago Leave 62 Injured, 10 Dead

Chicago police work at the scene of a shooting near East Chicago Avenue and North State Street in the Near North Side neighborhood, in a file photo LaRiviere/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)

More than 70 people were shot from Friday until Tuesday morning over the Fourth of July holiday weekend in Chicago, police said.

Authorities confirmed that 10 people died and 62 people were wounded in separate incidents, according to local media reports.

In the latest fatal incident, a man was shot and killed and two others were wounded at a party in the Woodlawn neighborhood on Tuesday morning at around 2:50 a.m. The male, 31, was shot six times and was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, police told NBC Chicago.

Authorities said that two males were shooting at each other at the 2200 block of South Wentworth Avenue at around 10:50 p.m. A 24-year-old unidentified woman was shot in the torso and was later pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital, officials told the Chicago Sun-Times and ABC7.

The incident left a 42-year-old injured, and an official said she’s in good condition at a nearby hospital, the paper reported. One of the suspects, a 38-year-old male, was shot in the buttocks and is in critical condition in Northwestern Memorial Hospital, authorities said.

Early on Sunday, a 35-year-old male was shot dead at around 3 a.m. while in a vehicle in Brighton Park, officials said. The male was in the passenger seat as a female driver was driving a car on the 3800 block of South Kedzie Avenue when he was hit in the neck by gunfire.

And on Friday, authorities said a 26-year-old male was shot and killed in the South Side’s Englewood district. The male was outside about 5:45 p.m. in the 6500 block of South Wolcott Avenue when someone approached and shot him.

On Sunday, two people were injured and one person—a 24-year-old male—died in a shooting at Grand Crossing on the South Side, police said. They were shot in the backyard of a house in the 7000 block of South Harper Avenue at around 5:30 a.m. local time.

During last year’s Fourth of July weekend in Chicago, 19 people were killed and over 100 were injured. And in 2020, 79 people were shot, including 15 deaths, while 68 people were shot and five died in 2019.

North of Chicago, in Highland Park, a 22-year-old male was taken into custody for allegedly shooting and killing seven people and injuring two dozen more during a Fourth of July parade Monday. Officials have not established a motive in the case.

According to the Giffords Law Center, a group that supports gun control measures, Illinois has among the strictest gun laws in the United States. The group gave the state an “A-” grade in 2021, alongside New York state, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Connecticut.

Chicago, meanwhile, has even stricter gun rules. For example, in 2013, Chicago, Cook County, and several Chicago-area suburbs like Highland Park banned firearms that they have defined as “assault weapons.”