Memorial Day weekend the deadliest in 5 years

36 people shot, 9 killed as violence erupts in Chicago during virus pandemic

Nine people already have been shot and killed in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend, making it the deadliest one since 2015.

The dead are among at least 36 people shot from Friday afternoon to Monday morning, according to data kept by the Chicago Tribune.

With a day still to go in the long weekend, the number of shootings is approaching 2019’s total despite a coronavirus stay-at-home order, Saturday’s severe storms and added police patrols.

Last year, 43 people were shot, seven fatally, over a holiday weekend that also included severe storms and an extra 1,200 patrol officers. The most injured in one year was 2016 with at least 69 shot, six fatally, but 2015 saw more people killed with 12 fatalities.

New police Superintendent David Brown said on Friday that he expected the usual spike in violence to occur this weekend. Patrols would be stepped up, but he would not say how many extra officers would be deployed.

Officers also were supposed be “on the lookout for large gatherings” that are not allowed because of the pandemic, Brown said.

Saturday has been the most deadly so far, with 17 people shot, five fatally, police said. The youngest homicide victim was Darnell Fisher, 16, who was shot and killed just after 10 p.m. Saturday in the 6100 block of South Indiana Avenue in the Washington Park neighborhood on the South Side.

Earlier that day on the West Side, a 35-year-old man was killed and three others were injured around 6:30 p.m. in the 3900 block of West Grenshaw Street in the Lawndale neighborhood, police said. The men, ages 23 to 43, were outside a residence when a vehicle approached and someone inside sprayed them with bullets.

Sunday saw 10 people shot, three fatally. There also was an incident with four people stabbed at 9:15 p.m. after an argument erupted with tenants of a Gresham apartment building in their backyard, police said.

A 46-year-old woman took out a knife and stabbed three men before someone stabbed her, police said. They were all taken to hospitals with non-life threatening injuries.

Less than an hour later and about a mile north in Englewood, officers responded to a call to disperse a large crowd in the 7000 block of South Lowe Avenue, police said.

It ended with officers chasing down a man who had a gun and then calling over the radio for a “10-1”

— an officer needing immediate assistance — when another man fired a gun, not aimed at police.

Dozens of squad cars lined 71st Street after the call was made. Drivers passing through tried to weave through the congested street as neighbors ran outside and took out their phones to capture the blue lights and hum of the helicopter above.

The man who fired the gun was taken into custody, police said. Two officers suffered minor injuries.