(The Center Square) – Chicago city officials are concerned about continued violent crime throughout the city as another weekend resulted in several shooting incidents and fatalities.
Over the Father’s Day weekend, 75 people were shot and 13 died from shootings on the city’s South and West sides. It is yet another weekend in which the city has had multiple gun-related deaths.
In Roseland, a Father’s Day gathering resulted in a father of four being killed after someone shot into the crowd. Other shootings included a 17-year girl being shot in the eye and a 14-year-old boy being shot multiple times walking down the street.
Chicago Police Department Interim Superintendent Fred Waller said as the weather gets nicer, violence increases.
“As more people are out in the summertime, we know that some of those people have people that are against them or have conflicts with those people. That’s what happened. Somebody came by and just opened fire on the whole group,” Waller said of the Roseland shooting.
The Memorial Day holiday weekend saw 32 people shot as well. Waller said CPD needs to do a better job.
“Our heart goes out to the families. We just need to do better,” Waller said. “Try a little harder.”
Waller said he and Mayor Brandon Johnson are concerned but are working to keep people safe in the city.
“Well, he’s concerned,” Waller said. “He knows that there is a challenge in front of us and that it is a great challenge.”
Johnson addressed the shootings Monday night and said that this had been a problem that his administration has taken over from the previous administration.
“In the immediate, it is about strategic, smart policing, and we are doing that,” Johnson said. “Forty days into my administration, as I said, we are fully aware of what I have inherited.”
Along with the heavy gun violence, aggravated batteries are up 17%, burglaries are up 12% and car thefts are up 153% compared to last year, according to Chicago Police statistics. However, Johnson recently claimed that his plan is working.
“We are putting hundreds of millions of dollars now into violence prevention and intervention and disruption,” Johnson said. “We are already seeing the dividends of that.”
Overall crime in Chicago has risen 38% since Brandon Johnson assumed office on May 15.
