By Eamonn Burke
This year’s Fourth of July, while stifled by the coronavirus concerns and pleas from officials to stay in, was still a violent one.
39 people were shot in New York City on the night of July Fourth, including three confirmed deaths. All three victims were in their 20s, and two were in Harlem; the other in Brooklyn. One of the deaths, a 23 year old man, was the result of a party and the product of much confusion amidst fireworks. “You didn’t know where it was coming from because they were running this way and that way,” said a witness.
Among the other non-fatal violence was a 34 year old woman struck by a haywire bullet while walking her dog in the Bronx, a group of four men and one woman shot in Manhattan, and a man walking in Brooklyn with a friend who was shot and killed. Additionally, there were 13 reported stabbings in the city that night. The violent night comes after an overall above average level of violence in the city throughout the month of June.
Chicago saw an even bloodier night, as 67 people were shot over the weekend, killing 13. Two of the dead were children, 7 and 14, prompting a statement from Mayor Lori Lightfoot:
“As a city, we must wrap our arms around our youth so they understand there’s a future for them that isn’t wrapped up in gun violence.”
The death of the teen late Saturday resulted from the open fire that a group of four men unleashed on a large crowd, killing four people total. The 7 year old girl was shot in the head on the sidewalk outside a party at her grandmother’s house.
While LA seems relatively unscathed by gun violence over the holiday, the emergency services nevertheless had their hands full dealing with over 3,000 calls to the fire department, despite banning fireworks due to the coronavirus. The most severe of the cases was a fire that had engulfed an apartment complex in Northridge. The extensive use of fireworks in the city also lead to decreased air quality. It was one of worst firework cases the city had seen in years, according to air quality management executive Philip Fine.
Baltimore shootings over the weekend claimed the life of one in a double shooting, shortly after a quadruple shooting injured four more, and two other unrelated shootings, bringing the total injured to eight.
A family of five was shot in Detroit, killing the 39 year old mother and injuring four others. Two shootings injured four people in Philadelphia on Saturday night, and more violence followed on Sunday, including a six year old boy who died. A child is in critical condition after being shot in the head in St. Louis, and an eight year old girl was shot and injured in Cleveland. A nightclub shooting in Greenville left two people dead and injured eight others.
So far, no arrests have been made in the wake of any of these shootings.
