By Monday morning, nine people already had been shot and killed in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend, making it the deadliest one since 2015.
The dead are among at least 39 people shot from Friday afternoon to early Monday evening, according to Chicago police and data kept by the Tribune.
With another night to go in the long weekend, the number of shootings was already close to 2019’s total despite the coronavirus stay-at-home order, Saturday’s severe storms and added police patrols.
Three teenagers were among those shot, among them 16-year-old Darnell Fisher, who was fatally wounded while walking shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday in the Washington Park neighborhood. One person is in custody in connection with the shooting and a gun has been recovered, police said.
A 15-year-old girl was shot in the leg while standing on a front porch around 5 a.m. Monday in the West Pullman neighborhood and was in good conditional at Roseland Community Hospital, police said.
And a 15-year-old boy suffered gunshot wounds to the face, chest and abdomen following a verbal altercation with an unknown driver shortly before 1 a.m. Saturday in the South Shore neighborhood, authorities said. He was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital in critical condition.
Both shootings remain under investigation, according to Chicago police.
Last year, 43 people were shot, seven fatally, over a holiday weekend that also included severe storms and an extra 1,200 patrol officers. The highest number of shootings in recent years was in 2016, when at least 69 were shot, six fatally. A year earlier, 12 people were shot and killed.
New police Superintendent David Brown said Friday that he expected the usual spike in violence this weekend. Patrols would be stepped up, but he would not say how many extra officers would be deployed.
Officers also were supposed be “on the lookout for large gatherings” that are not allowed because of the pandemic, Brown said.
On Saturday, 17 people were shot, five fatally, police said. A 35-year-old man was killed and three others were injured around 6:30 p.m. in the 3900 block of West Grenshaw Street in the Lawndale neighborhood, police said. The men, ages 23 to 43, were outside a residence when a vehicle approached and someone inside sprayed them with bullets.
Sunday saw 10 people shot, three fatally. There also was an incident with four people stabbed at 9:15 p.m. after an argument erupted with tenants of a Gresham apartment building in their backyard, police said.
A 46-year-old woman took out a knife and stabbed three men before someone stabbed her, police said. They were all taken to hospitals with injuries that were not life-threatening.
Less than an hour later and about a mile north in Englewood, officers responded to a call to disperse a large crowd in the 7000 block of South Lowe Avenue, police said.
It ended with officers chasing down a man who had a gun and then calling over the radio for a “10-1” — an officer needing immediate assistance — when another man fired a gun, not aimed at police.
Dozens of squad cars lined 71st Street after the call. Drivers tried to weave through the congested street as neighbors ran outside and took out their phones to capture the blue lights and hum of a helicopter.
The man who fired the gun was taken into custody, police said. Two officers suffered minor injuries.
Chicago Tribune’s Stacy St. Clair contributed.
