Over the Fourth of July weekend, 102 people were shot, 15 of whom died from their wounds, in Chicago, according to reports from the Chicago Tribune.
The newspaper said the shootings took place between Friday afternoon, June 30, and early Wednesday, July 5. Nearly half of the 102 people were shot between 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 4, and 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, July 5.
Chief Police Spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said that the number of deaths was “perplexing” because it was worse than the number of shootings during Memorial Day weekend.
“We deployed some very successful tactics over the Memorial Day weekend,” Guglielmi said. “Yet those same tactics did not seem to work as well over the Fourth holiday.”
This year, an additional 1,300 police officers were sent out on patrol in the city.
Guglielmi said that a great deal of the shootings were over “petty disputes that escalated into somebody pulling out a gun.”
The shootings occurred mostly in the south and west sides of the city.
The number of shootings this year reached above 1,800, which is less than the 2,035 people who were shot by this time last year in the city, according to Chicago Tribune data.
The last time the Fourth of July weekend lasted four days was in 2013. During that holiday, at least 74 people were shot in the city, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Last year, 66 people were shot over the holiday weekend, with five fatalities.
Last week, President Donald Trump tweeted that the number of crimes and killings have reached “epic proportions” and that federal help would be sent to Chicago.
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