At least nine people were killed and 50 others wounded in shootings across Chicago over the weekend, just a week after Mayor Lori Lightfoot said a federal strike force would be in the city to provide additional resources to back agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), ABC7 reported.
The extra support came after both Lightfoot and Chicago police Superintendent David Brown spoke with President Joe Biden to request that he send federal help to crack down on gun trafficking.
One of the incidents over the weekend was a mass shooting outside a party in Austin, on the West Side on Saturday night. Six people were shot, including four female teenagers and a 12-year-old girl, when they were standing with a group on the sidewalk andsomeone in an SUV opened fire, police said, Fox News reported.
Marshawn Feltus, an Austin resident trying to improve the historically violent area, told the Chicago Sun-Times that "it is so devastating that these get-togethers are turning into mass shootings. And it seems to be more of a common occurrence no matter where throughout the city," adding that when young and older people alike are partying, it seems to inevitably turn into some type of mass shooting, which is very disturbing.
The incident occurred less than 24 hours after another mass shooting in Austin late Friday in which one man was killed and three others wounded.
So far this year, Chicago has recorded at least 33 shootings that left four or more victims injured, according to an analysis of city data by the Sun-Times.
"It’s not just a police problem," Feltus said. "It’s a community problem, and it affects everyone in the community.”
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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