At least 44 people have been shot across Chicago, four of them fatally, as the city heads into Sunday night of the Fourth of July weekend. Last year’s Independence Day weekend ended with 66 people shot — a total that actually stoked cautious optimism with the lowest death toll for the July 4 weekend in nearly a decade.
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On Saturday, Chicago Police touted a 14 percent decline in shootings this year compared to the first six months of 2016, and they hope to tamp down the holiday weekend violence with the help of a new gun violence strike force that includes ATF agents.
At least 1,781 people have been shot in the city this year, 310 of them fatally, according to data maintained by the Chicago Sun-Times. …