101 shot, 15 die over 4th in Chicago

GUNFIRE TORE through Chicago fireworks over the long Fourth of July weekend — leaving more than 100 people shot and more than a dozen dead, according to a report.

At least 101 people were shot in the Windy City between Friday afternoon and early Wednesday, with 15 of them dying from their wounds, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The shooting victims ranged in age from a 13-year-old boy to a 60-year-old man, according to the paper’s data, with the gun violence clustered mainly on the West and South sides of the city.

In the 12-hour window between 3:30 p.m. Tuesday and 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, at least 42 people were shot despite 58 arrests in preholiday drug and gun raids, the paper reported.

The gun violence marked one of Chicago’s bloodiest July 4 weekends in recent history. In 2013 — the last full fourday Independence Day holiday — there were 74 shot and 12 killed.

Strategic Decision Support Centers and partnerships with federal agencies helped stem the violence in targeted areas, Chicago police said.

Activist pastor the Rev. Michael Pfleger lamented the rampant gunfire in an all-caps Facebook post Wednesday.

“We are now told 14 people KILLED AND 88 WOUNDED IN CHICAGO THIS HOLIDAY WEEKEND . . . AND PEOPLE ASK WHY I AM FLYING THE AMERICAN FLAG UPSIDE DOWN . . . We are safer in Iraq , , , ” he wrote.

The violent Chicago weekend came days after President Trump vowed to send in reinforcements.

“Crime and killings in Chicago have reached such epidemic proportions that I am sending in Federal help,” he tweeted Friday. “1714 shootings in Chicago this year!”

The same day, White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders stirred outrage after suggesting in a press briefing that Chicago crime was driven by a lack of “morality.”

Despite the alarming numbers out Wednesday, Chicago police last month said violent crime had dropped about 14% since the previous year.