The Number of People Shot in Chicago This Year Has Surpassed 1,000
Gun violence continues to be a crisis in the city of Chicago, with African-American and Latino youth being the majority of the victims. Families are mourning their sons and daughters who died from stray bullets, while others were victims of gang violence in the city's toughest neighborhoods.
The latest shooting numbers show that the alarming situation has not yet improved, although city officials and politicians have made constant calls of action to end violence in the Windy City. After a weekend which included five killings and 33 people injured from bullets across the city, the number of shootings have surpassed 1,000, the Chicago Tribune reports.
As of Monday (June 8) morning, there were 1,050 people shot this year. At this time in 2014, there were 924 people shot and in 2013, 820 people. In 2012, there were 981 people shot by the same date. If the numbers continue on this path, this may be Chicago's most violent yea, in recent times.
The youngest victim was a 17-year-old boy named Richard Edwards. He was shot leaving a party early Saturday and died from a bullet wound that struck the side of his chest. On Sunday, there were two 19-year-old men killed in a drive-by shooting in the Austin neighborhood, the Tribune reports.
After being shot, they succumbed to their injuries at a nearby hospital. On Friday evening, Juan Ugalde, 27, was shot in the side of the face and died at the scene. Another man, Laurance Boyd, 34, was shot twice while sitting in a car Friday evening. He died after being transported to a nearby medical facility.
There have been 155 deaths from gun violence in Chicago this past year, according to the Red Eye Chicago homicide tracker.
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