Staggering Numbers Of Shootings, Deaths In Chicago & NYC Over Bloody July 4th Weekend 

Every July 4th weekend police in Chicago brace for an uptick in violence – even more than is usual when typical weekends average about 40 shootings – and this holiday weekend was no different, easily registering as the deadliest and most violent this year given the total death count. New York City has also been witnessing a steady uptick in seemingly random shootings and violence, including brazen acts committed in broad daylight in heavily trafficked areas, such as the recent Times Square wounding of a US Marine. 

On Monday the Chicago Sun-Times has tallied 92 people shot over the long July 4th weekend, with 16 killed. The Sun-Times database shows the numbers killed to be a weekend high for all of 2021 so far.

Among the 92 shooting incidents, 76 were considered serious enough to receive hospital treatment, including six children and teenagers, according to Chicago police. 

It was a particularly devastating weekend in terms of horrific headlines involving child deaths and woundings – with the Sun-Times listing the following: 

• In one incident, two people were killed and four were wounded, including a 12-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy, in a shooting early Monday in Washington Park on the South Side.
• That happened around the same time that a 6-year-old girl and a woman were shot in West Pullman and about four hours after an 11-year-old boy and a man were shot in Brainerd on the South Side.
• Late Sunday afternoon, a 5-year-old girl was shot in a leg, also in West Pullman.

Like with other weekend spikes in violence, local media and even woefully understaffed police often struggle to gain an accurate tally of shooting incidents amid the rapidly incoming emergency notifications. 

Fox News wrote earlier that “Reports on the total number of incidents ranged wildly from 37 to 88, but the fact remains that dozens of people were shot, with at least five children among the victims.”

The youngest victim in Chicago was a 6-year old girl who survived what likely was a random act targeting someone else in a group which had been standing on a sidewalk: 

The youngest victim was a 6-year-old girl who was shot while standing in a group on a sidewalk at around 1 a.m. Monday, WGN 9 reported. 

A gray SUV pulled up and someone opened fire on the group, hitting a 43-year-old woman twice in the back as well as the little girl. Both are expected to recover. 

New York City also saw a noticeable spike in violence over the holiday weekend, with by Monday morning NYPD data showing 26 total shot since Friday midnight. Later in the day that total rose to at least 30 as more detailed reports came in on the prior two days.

SO FAR THIS JULY 4TH WEEKEND: Nearly 30 people were shot as a result of gunfire across New York City during the holiday weekend.

— NYC Scanner (@NYScanner) July 5, 2021

And then there’s this surreal story which suggests increasingly lawless streets where criminals strike with impunity often in broad daylight and in crowded places:

A 23-year old woman was slashed in the chest and hand in Times Square early Friday morning when a stranger lashed out after she ignored his catcalls, police said. 

The woman, whose name was not released, was visiting Manhattan from Michigan and leaving ‘Restaurant Row’ in Midtown, around West 46th Street and Eighth Avenue, around 4.30am with a friend when the man began shouting crude remarks, according to the New York Daily News.

Her friend told the stranger to leave her alone, but he grew enraged and followed them before approaching the woman from behind a slicing her across the chest and hand with an unknown sharp object, police said.

Police were not able to apprehend the man described in public alerts as a “dark-skinned man in black clothing” after he fled the scene. Surveillance footage was subsequently released as NYPD continue seeking the public’s help.

Police appear to have few answers or done little in terms of practical solutions or prevention…

“We’ve gone from that to now needing to bring in metal detectors because they can’t curb the violence in New York City … What a sad state of affairs” https://t.co/x9MVxsGHet

— Jacob Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) July 1, 2021

All the latest incidents which at times sent tourists running for their lives in central places like Times Square “mark the latest in a bloody summer as violent crime continues to spike in the Big Apple, jumping by a quarter over the past year, according to police data,” The Daily Mail wrote of recent incidents. “Shootings in New York City have surged by 43 percent in the past year, while murders are up 12 percent.”