Seventeen people were fatally shot in the city of Chicago, Ill. over the Independence Day holiday weekend, from Thursday night through Sunday. Another 70 people were shot and injured over the weekend.
The youngest victim of a fatal shooting was 7-year-old Natalie Wallace who was shot in the Austin neighborhood Saturday night, WLS 7 reported.
Wallace was visiting her grandmother’s home on Saturday night, July 4, when a white vehicle pulled up to the house and three suspects got out and fire at least 20 shots at the home. Police said Wallace was playing outside when the shooting began. She struck by gunfire and transported to Stroger Hospital where she was pronounced dead.
According to WLS 7, Chicago police said Sunday night that one person of interest was in custody in connection with the shooting of Wallace. Charges are expected sometime on Monday.
Vernado Jones, 14, was also killed on Saturday, July 4th. He was among eight gunshot victims from a shooting in the 6100 block of South Carpenter Street. Four males reportedly walked up to the address and began firing.
Jones was struck in the back and pronounced dead at Comer Children’s Hospital. Three other male victims were also killed in the shooting. Two died at the scene and the third died at the University of Chicago Medical Center. The ages of the three additional fatal shooting victims were not immediately known.
It was the third consecutive weekend in the city in which a child was killed by gunfire. Three minors were shot and killed in Chicago last weekend and two minors were shot and killed the weekend prior.
Eight more minors were injured by gunfire over the weekend.
Five more people were also killed Saturday and fifteen more people were injured by gunfire that day.
The first fatal shootings in Chicago for the long holiday weekend occurred on Thursday night. 15 people were shot, and three were killed Thursday night. The first fatal shooting for the day occurred at 3:20 p.m. when an unidentified man was shot, WLS 7 reported Friday. Another man, 27, was fatally shot at around 9:30 p.m. and a third man was fatally shot at around 11:15 p.m.
Five more people were killed on Sunday and twelve more were injured by gunfire that day.
The last fatal shooting victim, a 39-year-old man, was found at around 2:27 a.m. on Monday morning. WSL 7 recorded 17 deaths in its total weekend report from Thursday at 6 p.m. through the end of Sunday night, though an additional fatal shooting was reported earlier Thursday and another Monday morning, totaling 19 fatal shootings between Thursday afternoon and Monday morning.
