Killed on the Fourth of July: Fourteen dead as Chicago descends into bloody chaos with 82 people shot over holiday weekend

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Killed on the Fourth of July: Fourteen dead as Chicago descends into bloody chaos with 82 people shot over holiday weekend

‘Windy City’ turned into a war zone over the Fourth of July weekend
Fourteen people dead and 82 injured in the rampant holiday violence
Anti-crime campaigner Father Michael Pfleger: ‘We feel like we’re in prison’
Police chiefs have vowed to crack down on spiraling gun deaths
More than 100 people have been murdered in the city of Chicago this year
By PAUL THOMPSON and COREY CHARLTON

The death toll from Chicago’s weekend of gun violence has climbed to 11 – with 82 injured – in one of the worst bursts of shootings the city has ever seen.
Despite the murder rate being at its lowest in 50 years, gang violence and drug related shootings turned parts of the ‘Windy City’ into a war zone over the Fourth of July weekend.
The bloodshed has now prompted police chiefs to vow to crack down on the spiraling level of gun violence in President Obama’s home city.
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Residents and authorities are fed up with the alarming and spiraling rate of gun violence in the Windy City

Georgia Utendahl, left, and Shanice Smith, right, pictured after learning a family member was shot by police

Warren Robinson (left), 16, was shot dead by an officer while hiding under a car and Tonya Gunn (right), 44, was shot and killed at a barbecue in just two of the shootings that took place across the city at the weekend

Murder scene: The ‘Windy City’ was turned into a war zone over the Fourth of July weekend

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Two teenagers and a woman were among those who died – two of which died after being shot by police during a chaotic shootout.
Although murder rates remain comparatively low, more than 100 people have been murdered in Chicago this year with more than 500 shooting incidents having taken place.

On Friday night, a gunman who fired on a group of friends in a Chicago street was injured in returning fire from a veteran carrying a concealed weapon.
The unidentified former military man – who is himself in a critical condition in hospital – shot Denzel A Mickiel, 22, twice after Mickiel allegedly fired at him and three of his friends as they left a party in the city’s south side on Friday night.
Mickiel is in critical condition following the spar and one of the veteran’s friends was also hurt.
The military veteran had been heading to a car with three of his friends outside the party in West Pullman on Friday night when the shoot out occurred, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The shootout between the veteran carrying a concealed weapon and Mickiel occurred here on Friday night

Three people are being questioned after officer Jeffrey Brady Westerfield, pictured, was found dead in his patrol car

Police and investigators flooded to the scene where Officer Westerman was found murdered in his patrol car
Security consultant Ross Rice told CBS Chicago the weekend’s violence speaks to a larger problem.
‘I think that is representative of the gang, drug, gun violence problem that still persists in Chicago,’ he said.
‘It’s not a law enforcement problem solely. There’s not going to be a law enforcement solution to this. You can’t arrest your way out of gang violence.’
On Saturday night, a 16-year-old Warren Robinson was shot dead by police officers. Police say he was hiding under a car, gun in hand pointed at an officer. His mother told ABC News that wasn’t true.
‘He didn’t have a gun on him,’ Georgina Utendahl said. ‘I have witnesses who saw him running from other people and police shot him.’
A 21-year-old was also killed and his 19-year-old cousin injured while they were sitting in a car after someone approached the vehicle and shot him in the head, police said.
Anti-gun crime campaigner Father Michael Pfleger, of St Sabina Catholic Church, said: ‘With these kind of numbers in Chicago, from the White House on down to the city there should be a response: What do we do? How do we stop this?
‘We’re celebrating independence, but we feel like we’re in prison,’ he said. ‘It’s unacceptable. We wouldn’t accept in in Iraq, we shouldn’t accept in it Chicago.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2683419/Chicagos-July-4th-weekend-marred-60-shootings-left-nine-people-dead.html#ixzz36pF3SWS7

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