11 killed, 45 injured in weekend Chicago shootings

[May 31, 2023]  By Glenn Minnis | The Center Square contributor

(The Center Square) – At least 11 people were killed and another 45 were injured over the Memorial Day weekend in Chicago, with the deaths representing the highest three-day numbers since 2015 when 12 were killed.

The sobering numbers came despite newly elected Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s efforts to curb violence by putting a new new safety plan in place across the city. The program funds the work of more than 250 grassroots organizations across 25 communities, with all of them working toward the same common goal of bolstering violence prevention and local youth outreach programs.

With the holiday weekend unofficially marking the start of summer and a time that has become known for a surge in gun violence in the city, authorities said the 6th District on the South Side and the 11th District on the West Side experienced the most violence over the past 72-hours, including at least 13 shooting victims in total.

In one instance, an unknown female victim was found stabbed to death just steps from Johnson’s home in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side. Hours later, on Monday evening, a 36-year-old man was also found shot in the 700 block of North Pine Ave., again just blocks from the mayor’s residence. He was hospitalized in good condition.

Across the city, extra officers were on duty, joining so-called peacekeepers that were placed at “hot spots” on the South and West Sides as part of the city’s peace-keeping mission.

Among the youngest victims over the 72-hour period was a pair 2-year-olds who were shot in separate accidental shootings that took place on the South and West Sides on Saturday, with both incidents stemming from the victims discharging a weapon they were playing with. Both are expected to survive, with one being hit in the forearm and the other in the hand.

In one of the weekend’s first shootings, a 33-year-old man was found fatally wounded with a gunshot wound to the armpit not long after midnight on Saturday in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood on the South Side.

Minutes later, a similar scene played out on the North Side in the 500 block of West Surf Street in Lakeview, where 35-year-old William Hair was found on a sidewalk with a gunshot wound to the chest. He later died at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center.

Early Sunday, three men were shot outside a Mariano’s grocery store in the Lake View neighborhood, with at least one being seriously injured and all three being hospitalized at Advocate Masonic Hospital.

Not long after that, a 37-year-old woman and a 35-year-old man were standing in the Heart of Chicago neighborhood when gunfire erupted, striking both victims in the face. The man later died at Mount Sinai Hospital, where both victims were transported and where the woman is now listed in critical condition.

In Calumet Heights on Monday, another three people were wounded in a shooting where one of the victims was a 77-year-old man. Hit in the back, he is now listed in critical condition at the University of Chicago Medical Center, along with a 57-year-old woman who was struck in the head.