Top cop’s mom tests positive for COVID-19

As gun violence gripped Chicago on another summer weekend, Chicago Police Department Supt. David Brown took an impromptu trip to Texas to visit with his mother after she tested positive Friday for COVID-19.

Police spokesman Howard Ludwig said Brown spent a little more than a day in his hometown of Dallas, where he visited his mother through a window.

“The superintendent has complete faith in the leadership team that handles the day-to-day operations of the Chicago Police Department,” Ludwig said.

COVID-19 cases recently have spiked in Texas and other states that have eased restrictions related to the virus, leading officials in that state and others to reverse course. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has acknowledged the state’s rate of infection has taken a “very swift and a very dangerous turn,” noting Sunday that in just weeks ‘‘the daily number of cases [has] gone from an average of about 2,000 to more than 5,000 per day.”

Meanwhile, as Illinois entered its latest phase of reopening Friday by lifting various restrictions, Chicago neighborhoods continued to be ravaged by another public health crisis. By the end of the weekend, 18 people had been shot to death — including three children — and 47 others were struck by gunfire.

During that time, Ludwig noted that Brown stayed “in constant communication with his leadership team and worked closely with them and the armed command staff to coordinate deployments and staffing.”

On Monday morning, Brown held a news conference and decried the “evil bastards” responsible for the recent bloodshed. He also announced plans to tamp down violence during the upcoming Fourth of July weekend.

“We’re going to have an additional 1,200 cops every day starting Thursday through Sunday that we’ll be deploying throughout our hotspots,” Brown said. “We’ll be working with city services. We’re engaging our violence interrupters. So it’s a full court press.”