A CONVULSION OF gun violence left seven people dead in 33 shooting incidents across Chicago during a chaotic Independence Day weekend in the midwestern US city, police say.
Among the dead was a seven-year-old boy who was fatally shot in the chest after returning from a Fourth of July celebration, US media reports said.
The city’s police superintendent Garry McCarthy said the boy was ”the unintended victim of a bullet meant for his father”, The Chicago Tribune reports, noting that his father is a high-ranking member of a street gang with dozens of previous convictions.
He is also not co-operating with police in their investigation into his son’s death.
Speaking on the topic of gun crime, McCarthy added:
If you think that putting more cops on the street would make a difference, then take a look at the fact that we put a third more manpower on the street for this weekend.
The warm weather and the fact that it was a holiday weekend was believed to partly explain the spike in gun crime.
Much of the bloodshed happened in just eight hours until 4:45 am on Sunday, The Chicago Tribune said, identifying a 16-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl among the victims.
Nine people have been shot and 46 injured by gunfire since Thursday.
- © AFP 2015, additional reporting by Nicky Ryan
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