CPD: 35 illegal guns seized during first day of holiday weekend

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Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson at a July 2018 press conference on gun recoveries. | Sam Charles/Sun-Times

Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson announced Wednesday that officers had recovered 35 illegal guns in the first 24 hours of the extended Fourth of July holiday weekend.

The seizures greatly outpaced the department’s normal rate of about one gun recovery per hour.

“Thirty-five guns in one night, that’s ridiculous,” Johnson said at a press briefing on the lakefront downtown Wednesday afternoon. “That just shows you the amount of illegal guns out here on the streets of Chicago, which is why we have police officer-involved shootings, innocent citizens being shot. It just highlights why we just have to, as a society, pass common sense gun legislation.”

Johnson said that 20 people were arrested overnight for alleged illegal gun possession.

The CPD announced Tuesday that more than 1,500 additional officers would be on-duty in an effort to stem shootings over the historically violent holiday weekend.

Monday, a boy was shot by an officer after, police said, he pointed a gun in the officer’s face in South Shore. The boy was in serious but stable condition.

An officer shot and killed a man in West Garfield Park after an “armed confrontation.” Also Wednesday, police arrested a man after a shootout with officers in Austin. No one was struck in that shooting, but Johnson said guns were recovered in each incident.

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