More people were shot in Chicago over this past weekend than any other this year, except for the Fourth of July weekend that spanned four days.  According to the Chicago Tribune and police data, a total of 63 people were shot and 8 were killed as violence erupted all over the city.

At least 63 people were shot in the city, and eight of them were killed, police said.  More than half of them were wounded over 13 hours from Saturday to early Sunday.  At least 16 more people were shot through the day Sunday, including three on the same street in South Austin.

 

The level of violence exceeded the 52 shot on the three-day Memorial Day but fell short of the 102 hit by gunfire over the long Fourth of July weekend, according to Tribune data.  Still, fewer people have been shot in Chicago this year than at this time last year: 2,435 compared to 2,710.

 

The wounded included a 14-year-old boy grazed in the chest and left knee while he walking with his sister and a friend just before 9:30 p.m. Friday in Pilsen.

 

An officer-involved shooting Saturday night left 33-year-old man with graze wounds to the head. Police said he confronted police with a gun and an officer fired.

The violence in Chicago continues despite the Trump administration sending in dozens of ATF agents to work with the Chicago Police Department back in June.  Per U.S. News, ATF agents were sent in to assist with ballistics information intended to help cops track down suspect quicker while identifying repeat offenders.

The ATF is sending 20 agents to Chicago to supplement ongoing efforts and coordinate with local agencies on a strike force aimed at solving shooting cases and using collected evidence and ballistics to find and stop gun traffickers, the Chicago Sun Times reported. They will join some 35 to 40 ATF agents already assigned to Chicago.

 

The goal is to use ballistics information submitted to a national database to identify when guns are used in multiple shootings and connect them to new cases. The beefed-up strike force, equipped with a mobile lab to quickly test new evidence, will help law enforcement build criminal cases against shooters and those providing the guns.

 

“We’ve been doing this all along but now it’s being amped up,” Dave Coulson, a spokesman for ATF in Chicago, told the Sun Times. “It’s a more concerted effort.”

 

“The goal is the prosecute as many of these guys as possible federally where they will serve longer prison terms,” Anthony Riccio, head of the Chicago Police Department’s organized crime unit, told the paper.

Meanwhile, the following daily tracking graph from HeyJackAss! helps to put the surge in violence this past weekend into perspective.

Per the Chicago Tribune, this weekend’s shootings occurred across the city, from Rogers Park on the Far North Side, where a 32-year-old man was killed early Sunday, to West Pullman on the Far South Side, where seven people were shot outside a banquet hall a few hours later the same day.

Finally, as we’ve noted before, 2017 is still shaping up to be every bit as devastating for the residents of Chicago as 2016 was.