Memorial Day weekend got off to a bloody start in Chicago as eight people were killed and at least 33 others were wounded in separate shootings from Friday evening into early Saturday.
The violence also came close to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s doorstep as a person was found dead in an apparent homicide less than two blocks from the first-term mayor’s West Side home.
Gunfire rang out at North Avenue Beach during a fight Friday afternoon, hours after city beaches officially opened for the summer, but no one was wounded.
The holiday weekend that marks the unofficial start of summer has also historically marked the beginning of the seasonal uptick in gun violence — often concentrated on the city’s South and West sides.
Extra police officers were scheduled to work over weekend, as Mayor Brandon Johnson and Interim CPD Supt. Fred Waller continued the controversial practice of canceling officers’ days off to boost staffing over violent weekends.
Dozens of “peacekeepers” also hit the streets to quell violence in “hot spots” on the South and West sides. And hundreds marched against violence Saturday in the Grand Crossing neighborhood.
The weekend’s first homicides happened within a few hours of each other.
Just before 3 a.m., a 37-year-old woman and a 35-year-old man were standing on a sidewalk in the 2300 block of West 18th Street in the Heart of Chicago neighborhood when someone opened fire, striking them both in the face, according to Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. They were taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where the man died and the woman was listed in critical condition.
About 20 minutes later, Johnathan Salgado, 22 was standing on the sidewalk in the 2400 block of South Homan Avenue in Little Village when he was shot in the chest, according to police. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he later died, police said.
About 2:15 a.m. in Lake View, a 35-year-old man was found on a sidewalk with a gunshot wound to the chest in the 500 block of West Surf Street. He died at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center.
Shortly before 1 a.m., another man, 33, was found dead with a gunshot wound to the armpit in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood’s 7800 block of South Seeley Avenue.
Hours later, three men were wounded in an Auburn Gresham drive-by shooting in the same South Side neighborhood.
A man was shot to death Saturday morning in the Humboldt Park neighborhood on the West Side. It happened about 11:15 a.m. in the 1100 block of North Ridgeway Avenue, according to police.
The homicide near the mayor’s Austin neighborhood home was discovered just after midnight in the 5700 block of West Chicago Avenue. A female whose age was unknown was pronounced dead at the scene. Police called it a homicide investigation, but didn’t release additional details.
A fatal shooting in Woodlawn was reported late Saturday. A 26-year-old man was pronounced dead after being shot in the back, police said.
Two people were shot early Sunday while sitting in a car in West Garfield Park. One of them, a 35-year-old man, was pronounced dead after suffering a gunshot wound to the head.
An off-duty Michigan police officer shot himself and seriously wounded another man Saturday afternoon when a gun he was handling went off in a room at Hotel Chicago in River North.
More than 20 others were wounded in nonfatal shootings across the city since 5 p.m. Friday.
Last year, 51 people were reported shot in the city over Memorial Day weekend, topping the number for the past five years. Nine people were killed and 42 more were injured, according to Chicago Sun-Times data.
Chicago police officers respond Saturday afternoon to Hotel Chicago, 333 N. Dearborn St., after an off-duty Michigan police officer discharged a gun inside a hotel room, striking himself and another person.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
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