Chicago Shootings: July 4th Weekend Sees More Than 100 People Shot, 19 Killed

Chicago’s explosive Fourth of July weekend left 19 people dead and more than 100 others wounded in shootings, including multiple mass shootings, across the Windy City in a four-day span, according to police.

The victims included two women, Neekshia Strong, 45, and Capri Edwards, 24, who lost their lives shielding children from gunfire on Independence Day, FOX 32 Chicago reported. Bullets struck all three of the boys with them, ages 5, 8 and 8. One of the boys died.

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Those victims were all from a single shooting. Police responded to dozens over the weekend, including an incident in Little Italy that left eight people wounded between the ages of 18 and 74.

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In just over a month, the city will host the 2024 Democratic National Convention.

Leaders are hoping to keep the city’s violence problem out of view during the event, with cordoned-off safe zones and a huge increase in security.

While murders have declined two years in a row after rising in 2020 and 2021, violent crime as a whole, led by soaring robberies, has climbed in the Windy City, police statistics show. Yearly car thefts nearly tripled between 2020 and 2023 from 9,910 to 29,287.