Watch CBS News

Funeral Home Gun Violence Marks 30th Mass Shooting In Chicago This Year

By Samah Assad and Christopher Hacker

 

CHICAGO (CBS) — Tuesday's gun violence that wounded 15 people at a funeral is the 30th mass shooting in Chicago this year, according to an online database.

Last night's violence was the largest this year in terms of injuries and at least one victim is reportedly fighting for her life.  The deadliest mass shooting happened on July 4, when four people died and four others were wounded in the 6100 block of South Carpenter in the Englewood neighborhood. One of those victims was a 14-year-old boy.

As Chicago Police Supt. David Brown addressed the public Wednesday morning, he said there are 117,000 gang members in Chicago and there are 55 major gangs in the city.

"This is about gangs, guns and drugs," Brown said.

The data is maintained by The Gun Violence Archive (GVA), collected from over 7,500 law enforcement, media, government and commercial sources daily in an effort to provide near-real time data about the results of gun violence. GVA says it is an independent data collection and research group with no affiliation with any advocacy organization.

A mass shooting is defined by the Centers for Disease Control as an incident in which at least four people are wounded or killed by gunfire.

Of those 30 shootings, four have occurred in the past week and two-thirds have happened in June and July.  So far, 11 of them in July alone. The were also 11 mass shootings in June.  A total of 20 people have been killed and 134 wounded in the 30 shootings.

Yesterday's incident also saw the highest number of people injured in a mass shooting in Chicago this year. The second highest was a mass shooting on March 7, where seven people were shot and injured on the 9100 block of East 79th St.

With 30 mass shootings so far this year, Chicago has had the most compared to other cities in the GVA data, including Philadelphia and New York City, which each have a total of 12. Houston has nine. Memphis has seven.

CBS 2 also analyzed mass shooting data collected by the GVA for Chicago for previous years.

In 2019, Chicago saw 33 total mass shootings -- just two more than what the city has so far this year.

Chicago Mass Shootings, 2014-2020

Graphic: Christopher Hacker

The data also shows 20 people were killed in mass shootings all of 2019. Chicago is already on pace to surpass that total this year.

And tragically, on July 21, 2019 -- the same date the shooting near the funeral home occurred yesterday -- four people were shot and hurt on the 3900 block of Roosevelt in another mass shooting, according to the data.

The Scale Of The Violence

Each circle on this map represents a single mass shooting in Chicago. The size of the circles corresponds to the number of people hurt or killed. You can zoom in and explore where these shootings have occurred. 

Graphic: Christopher Hacker

According to the latest Chicago Police Department crime statistics, there have been 414 murders as of July 19, a 51% increase from 2019.  There have been 1,637 shooting incidents, a 47% increase.

 

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.