Killed in Chicago Over Labor Day Holiday Weekend

A surge of killings occurred between the early hours of Monday and Tuesday in what police believe was a spate of retaliatory violence mainly involving gangs to avenge affronts from earlier in the weekend, the newspaper reported. They were both taken to Stroger Hospital where they were pronounced dead. Residents identified the man as Allen H. Smith and said they heard him arguing with another man before shots were fired.

Chicago has hit its 500th homicide of the year, the Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday, making 2016 the city’s deadliest year in two decades.

Another injured victim, Crystal Meyer, was nine months pregnant when she was shot in the abdomen and leg on West 53rd Street in the Back of the Yards neighborhood.

It seemed like the Labor Day weekend would not be as bloody as other recent summer weekends in Chicago. During Memorial Day Weekend, 6 out of 69 shootings were shot fatally, and over the Fourth of July weekend, 5 out of 66 shot were fatal.

With the increase of violence this summer, Chicago’s homicide numbers will shatter the number from the previous year.

Homicides in Chicago this year exceed combined totals in NY and Los Angeles, the two largest cities in the United States. The Sun-Times reports 65 people were shot, including 13 who were killed. Over, 2,900 people have been killed thus far.

CNN reported Tuesday (Sept. 6) that Chicago’s homicide rate tops other big USA cities, such as NY and Los Angeles. New Orleans, St. Louis, Detroit, Baltimore and Newark all have higher homicide rates when considering the data per capita.

There were 90 homicides in Chicago in August, tying with June 1996 for the most killings in a single month.

A lot of the homicides in Chicago are gun-related, reports CNN; there are almost 82 shootings per week.