More than three dozen people were injured or killed during a weekend of violent crime in Chicago, police said.
A total of 47 people were injured during shootings in the city starting Friday, and two people were killed. On Sunday afternoon, a 37-year-old man was riding his bicycle through a neighborhood on the 4000 block of West Carroll Avenue when he was shot in the chest and neck. He was taken to a local hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
A 19-year-old woman was killed overnight Saturday when shots rang out on the 3000 block of East 78th Street. Police said the woman was standing in the parking lot of an apartment building when she was shot in the head. The woman was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she was later pronounced dead. A second woman injured during that shooting was hit in the shoulder and was listed in fair condition.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has pleaded with citizens to put an end to what has been a violent summer in the city so far. More than 400 people have been murdered in Chicago this year alone.
President Trump has criticized Lightfoot and her colleagues running other large cities where crime has ticked up in recent months.
“Extreme politicians have joined this anti-police crusade and relentlessly vilified our law enforcement heroes. To look at it from any standpoint, the effort to shut down policing in their own communities has led to a shocking explosion of shootings, killings, murders, and heinous crimes of violence,” Trump said as he threatened to send federal police into Chicago to help police city streets.
Lightfoot last week said she does not want Trump’s help and accused the president of targeting cities run by female leaders for political reasons.
“The president has been on a campaign now for some time against Democratic mayors across the country,” Lightfoot said. “Whether it’s me, whether it’s Keisha Lance Bottoms in Atlanta, whether it’s Muriel Bowser in Washington, D.C., whether it’s Jenny Durkan in Seattle — do you see a common theme here?”
Trump and Lightfoot spoke by phone last week to discuss crime in the city.
“The conversation was brief and straightforward,” Lightfoot’s office said. “Mayor Lightfoot maintains that all resources will be investigatory in nature and be coordinated through the U.S. Attorney’s office. The Mayor has made clear that if there is any deviation from what has been announced, we will pursue all available legal options to protect Chicagoans.”
