Philadelphia sees rise in violent crime under liberal leadership
Violent crime in the City of Brotherly Love has spiked
Two people opened fire at a Chicago gathering early Friday, killing one person and wounding seven others in the second such attack on the city's South Side in the past two weeks.
The shooting at a "pop-up party" in the Ashburn neighborhood killed a 26-year-old man who was shot in the head and sent the others to the hospital, police said. The victims' conditions ranged from fair to critical.
CHICAGO SHOOTING ON SOUTH SIDE LEAVES AT LEAST 1 DEAD, 7 WOUNDED: REPORT
The latest gunfire followed a March 14 attack at another pop-up party in the Park Manor neighborhood a few miles east, where two people were killed and at least a dozen others were wounded.
Fatal shootings appear to be picking up even after a year in which they jumped dramatically in Chicago, from 495 in 2019 to 769 in 2020. The city is on a pace to record even more this year: As of Wednesday, there had been 123 homicides in the city since Jan. 1, compared to 94 during the same period last year, according to the police department.
Chicago Police hold a press conference regarding the shooting of a police officer on March 20, 2021 (Chicago Police Superintendent David O. Brown Twitter) ((Chicago Police Superintendent David O. Brown Twitter))
There have also been more police officers shot. On Thursday, an alleged shoplifter at a Home Depot on the South Side shot a security guard and a police officer before he was killed in a shootout with police a short time later.
The officer, who was shot in the shoulder and is expected to recover, is the fourth member of the department to be shot in the past two weeks and the 21st to be shot this year, compared to nine who were shot during the same period of 2020.
Last year was one of the most dangerous for the city's police officers in memory, with 79 targeted by shooters, compared to 22 the year before.
Police have struggled to explain the spike in gun violence, but Police Superintendent David Brown, while talking Thursday about the officer who was shot at the Home Depot, suggested an overall lack of respect for law enforcement is part of the problem.
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"Men and women in law enforcement all across the country are under attack," said Brown, who mentioned Eric Talley, the officer killed in Monday's mass shooting at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado.
"But here in Chicago ... it seems that these offenders are acting with impunity in the way not only do they shoot each other, but basically a loss of respect for law enforcement," Brown said.
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