Chicago's Violent Weekend Ends With a 10-Year First

Chicago's summer kickoff brought a grim but familiar tally: at least 26 people were wounded in shootings over Memorial Day weekend, the Chicago Sun-Times reports, citing city police. Despite the volume of gunfire, no murders were reported for the first time in at least a decade, per WFLD. Authorities reported only one fatal shooting between 5pm Friday and 5am Tuesday: a 2-year-old boy fatally shot himself Sunday before a 31-year-old man was arrested, per the Sun-Times. Among the other victims were four teenagers on the West Side, ages 14 to 18, who were hit around 3am Sunday; police say the suspected shooter fled with a group of other teens, and all four victims were hospitalized in good condition, per Fox News.

Around 10pm Monday, an 18-year-old and two 19-year-olds were shot blocks away from a large South Side street gathering, per WLS. About an hour later, four adults were shot in the West Side's Austin neighborhood, per WFLD. The city had already canceled days off for officers as part of a broader "Summer Safety Strategy," with Superintendent Larry Snelling warning of a potentially difficult season. Mayor Brandon Johnson urged parents and other adults to closely monitor young people and steer them toward city-run summer programs, saying officials are deploying "every single entity of government" to provide alternatives to street gatherings.