City’s most violent Memorial Day weekend in 7 years ‘intolerable,’ Mayor Brandon Johnson says

When Memorial Day weekend of 2020 ended with 39 people shot and 10 of them dead, then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot called it a “bloodbath” and a “fail” by her newly hired Police Supt. David Brown.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s approach after this year’s long holiday weekend was markedly different.

The weekend ended with 59 people shot, 11 of them killed. And while Johnson said the level of violence — the most shooting victims since 2016 — was “intolerable,” he didn’t undercut interim Chicago Police Supt. Fred Waller.

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“It produced pain and trauma that devastated communities across Chicago, and my heart breaks for everyone affected,” Johnson said in a statement issued late Tuesday afternoon. “That’s why as mayor, I am committed to leveraging every single resource at our disposal to protect every single life in our city.”

A City Hall source, who asked to remain anonymous, said Johnson is well aware that reducing the violent crime wave that dominated the mayoral campaign will take time.

Memorial Day weekend is a “complicated ecosystem” that involves “multiple public safety challenges,” the City Hall source said.

This year, his administration distributed $2.5 million to 253 grassroots organizations so they could hold barbecues, sporting events and other constructive activities for young people and families over the long holiday weekend.

Another part of the challenge is securing “public congregate spaces” like lakefront beaches, downtown and neighborhood commercial corridors and street festivals. That requires a “significant presence” of police officers, the source said.

“There was a lot of activity going on, and that activity was safe, by and large. We had additional activity going on because of these community organizations all over the city, and they had many successful events engaging families and young people in particular. We didn’t see the significant incidents that we’ve had downtown for the most part, by and large,” the City Hall source said, without mentioning the shooting that closed North Avenue beach for a few hours on Friday afternoon.

“Where we struggled was, obviously, on some of the shootings and homicides. And primarily we struggled between the hours of midnight and 4 a.m. That’s something that we have to look at more closely,”said the source.

Conversations are under way to devise “new strategies” for the most violent overnight hours, and already, “adjustments” made during the latter half of the holiday weekend produced encouraging results, the source said.

Memorial Day weekend was Chicago’s most violent since 2016, and one of the most deadly in the last decade. Only 2022 had more homicide victims, at 13, including three people wounded on the holiday weekend who died the following month.

More than two-thirds of the people shot this weekend — 41 of the 59 — were in seven police districts: South Chicago, Gresham, Deering, Ogden, Harrison, Near West and Town Hall.

Notably, there were only two shootings each in the Englewood and Austin districts. Shootings have been decreasing in the Englewood district for three years straight, according to police statistics. So far this year, through Sunday, the Austin district has seen a slight uptick in shootings compared with last year, from 46 to 49. But that’s still down from three years ago.

The shooting with the most victims happened Saturday in Auburn Gresham. Four people were shot when a gunman opened fire from a car near 79th Street and Ashland Avenue, police said. A woman, 69, in a nearby car was shot and killed. Three other men were wounded.

Two 2-year-olds were also wounded in separate shootings.

Not included in the shooting tally is another homicide victim: a woman who was stabbed to death on the same block as Johnson’s home after a man accused her of stealing from him while they did drugs together, according to prosecutors.

Saturday had the most shootings, with 25 victims; Sunday had 19; and Monday, 12. Three people were shot Friday evening. For purposes of the Memorial Day weekend total, the Sun-Times counted shootings occurring from 5 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Tuesday.

David Struett/Sun-Times

Despite Johnson’s bump in funding to community groups, Ja’Mal Green, a two-time former mayoral candidate who endorsed Paul Vallas in the April runoff, blasted the Johnson administration for prioritizing $51 million in funding for homeless migrants over the Black communities hit hardest by weekend violence. The migrant funding is expected to be approved Wednesday by the City Council.

“Almost 12 people were killed. We are in a state of emergency in the city and have been for many years,” Green said outside City Hall Tuesday morning. “And it is time for us to put the urgency on this public safety crisis just as we did with COVID. Just as we currently are doing with the migrant crisis.”