Gun violence in Chicago continues to outpace last year’s numbers as 27 people, including two young girls, were shot this past weekend.
The Chicago Tribune reports that the girls, 11 and 12, remained in critical condition and on life support Monday after being shot in separate South Side attacks 30 minutes and 4 miles apart on Saturday night.
According to data kept by the Tribune, nine children age 14 or younger have been shot this year—a 3-year-old boy, a 5-year-old girl, an 11-year-old girl, a boy and girl both age 12, a 13-year-old boy, a 14-year-old girl and two 14-year-old boys—and the shootings have occurred mostly in police districts long known for violence.
In the latest shootings Saturday night, Takiya Holmes, 11, was sitting in a parked car with family members when she was hit in the head by a stray bullet around 8 p.m.
Doctors have told Takiya’s relatives that the prognosis is “not good.”
A half-hour after Takiya’s shooting, 12-year-old Kanari Gentry Bowers was shot in the head while playing with friends at Henderson Elementary School in the West Englewood neighborhood.
Kanari remains on life support and has not responded to family members. Her family told reporters that on at least three occasions, paramedics and hospital staff were unable to detect her heartbeat.
There is no one in custody for either shooting.
From the Tribune:
Two 16-year-old boys were also hit by gunfire in the city over the weekend. One of the boys was shot in the left arm in a drive-by shooting about 9:35 p.m. Sunday in the South Shore neighborhood, police said. On Saturday, a 16-year-old boy was shot in the right arm in the North Austin neighborhood.
About 6:50 p.m. Friday, two 17-year-old boys were wounded in Roseland on the Far South Side.
Among those fatally wounded was a 25-year-old woman, one of four people shot Saturday in the 100 block of North Mayfield Avenue in the South Austin neighborhood, police said.
The shooting happened about 8:30 p.m. when someone got out of a dark-colored SUV and shot at four people who were walking in the area. The 25-year-old woman was shot in the neck and was pronounced dead. Three others were wounded in the shooting.
Chicago police also shot 55-year-old Michelle Robey, who had reportedly been holding a knife and making threatening statements near a CVS pharmacy store, and officials were looking into the possibility that Robey was trying to force police to shoot her.
According to the Tribune, although the number of homicides so far this year is lower than at the same time last year, the number of people shot is higher.
“As of Monday morning, there were at least 69 homicides this year compared with 78 last year. At least 403 people have been shot in the city this year compared with 363 people this time last year,” the Tribune reports.
Read more at the Chicago Tribune.