Major cities across the United States saw a violent Fourth of July weekend, with reports saying that at least 50 people were shot in Chicago, while children were hit by gunfire in Houston and Baltimore, one fatally.
Authorities told NBC Chicago on July 4 that nine people were fatally shot across Chicago over the weekend. Last year, more than 19 were shot and killed and 100 more were injured during the same time period.
From late on July 1 through July 3, there were 24 shooting incidents across New York City, officials told PIX11. That’s a 60 percent increase over last year, when 19 people were shot.
2 More Kids Shot
Two children were among six people who were wounded on July 2 in an apparent drive-by shooting, police in eastern North Carolina said. Officers responded to a home for a report of shots fired around 9:30 p.m., the Clinton Police Department said in a statement. They found six people with apparent gunshot wounds.A preliminary investigation suggests that suspects arrived in a car and drove past the home, where people were gathered outside. They circled the block and then opened fire toward the home, striking the victims in what appeared to be a targeted attack, according to the statement.
Last year, the FBI said that homicides in the United States in 2020 increased nearly 30 percent over the previous year, representing the largest single-year jump since the agency started keeping track of such statistics.
Homicides and non-negligent manslaughters climbed an estimated 29.4 percent to 21,570, an increase of 4,901 over 2019, FBI data showed. It’s the highest estimated total since the early 1990s, when homicides stayed above 23,000 a year as drug wars played out in many places in the United States.
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