Chicago Weekend Shootings

Heartbreaking Events

We’re all heartbroken by these shootings. If we can teach ourselves compassion and empathy and kindness, then we’ll be better off than them.

Chi-Town is a beautiful city with plenty of culture, history, and amazing food. It’s also the birthplace of hip-hop and home to some of America’s best beer. But what many people don’t see is how this city has become a hotspot for gun violence and how that violence extends beyond just guns themselves. Here are some stories about three individuals whose lives ended over the weekend:

A 5-year-old boy was among six people killed in weekend shootings across Chi-Town. Jahnae Patterson was walking with his mother to a store on the South Side when a stray bullet hit him in the head. He died at Comer Children’s Hospital late Sunday night, according to Chi-Town police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. The boy’s mother also suffered an injury but survived. Three men were playing basketball on a West Side street when a gunman emerged from an alley and opened fire, wounding three of them.

Chicago’s Dark Side

Chicago has a serious gun violence problem. However, the city has a dark side: shootings and murders.

The shootings in Chi-Town continue to get worse. In fact, the number of shootings has been rising for several years now. The number of homicides in Chi-Town had increased by about 20% since 2012. An earlier study showed that it had increased by nearly 50 percent since 2001. In 2015 alone there were over 4,000 shooting incidents in Chi-Town, with more than 500 resulting from gang violence alone!

More than 30 people were shot, and four of them died. Two of those killed were children — a 10-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy. The other two adults who died were men ages 36 through 40, according to police reports. The shootings occurred over an eight-hour period Friday night into Saturday morning, officials said,  “Most [of the incidents] happened in Chi-Town’s South Side or West Side neighborhoods but some took place in the suburbs surrounding the city as well.”

In the last few weeks, there’s been a spike in violence in Chi-Town. The shootings included the deaths of six women and three men. Two gunmen approached a group of people gathered outside a house before shooting into the crowd from across the street. There have been concerns about trending violence this summer in Chicago.

Chi-Town weekend shootings are far deadlier than weekday shootings.

Chicago is a city that has seen its fair share of violence in recent years.

The latest wave of shootings was especially hard to stomach for many locals and visitors alike. But even as people mourned and prayed for the victims, they also wanted answers, and they got them fast. The shootings in Windy City have resulted in the loss of many innocent lives, and it’s time for us to take a stand against violence. We’re all horrified by the events that took place in Chicago this weekend. The violence is senseless and frightening to us all.

Many people believe that the increase in gang activity is due to a lack of jobs, increased poverty, and a lack of education. As the unemployment rate rises in Chi-Town, more people are forced to live below the poverty line and this leads to more kids joining gangs. These kids believe they have no choice if they want to survive.

Justice will serve all those affected by this tragedy

The problem of gun violence in this country is not going away, and it’s important that we continue to work toward finding a solution. Gun control is an issue that has not been solved despite high rates of violence and deaths due to gun use in areas of increased gang activity. It’s time for us all to come together as one community and find ways to stop these killings from happening again in the future. “We would like to extend our deepest condolences to the families of the victims of the weekend shootings in Chicago,” stated the CPD.

Everyone from the Guardian Liberty Voice sends their thoughts, prayers, and love to all those impacted by these tragic events.

Written By Armon Evans

Sources:

NBC CHICAGO: 5 Dead, at Least 18 Wounded in Chicago Weekend Shootings, Police Say By CHICAGO GUN VIOLENCE | CHICAGO SHOOTINGS

FOX NEWS: Chicago weekend violence sees dozens shot, including 13-year-old boy found on park bench By Stephen Sorace| Fox News

ABC 7 CHICAGO: Chicago shootings: 31 shot, 8 fatally, in weekend violence, police say By ABC7 Chicago Digital Team

ABC News: 13-year-old among 8 fatally shot in Chicago weekend violence by Bill Hutchinson Video By Jessie DiMartino

Top Image And Featured Image Courtesy of Stephen Hogan | Flickr Flickr Page – Creative Commons License