Chicago Stunned to Go One Whole Day Without a Shooting — Then It Ends in Tragedy

It was headline news in Chicago this week when the city went one full day without a reported shooting. 

According to Chicago police records, there were no gunshot victims over a 26-hour period from 10:02 p.m. Sunday to 12:43 a.m. Tuesday. The Chicago Sun-Time reported the achievement, and the story was picked up by ABC 7 and other local media.

The last known shooting victim on Sunday was a 17-year-old boy. He was wounded in Little Village on the Southwest Side. Thirteen people were shot in the city earlier in the day.

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Gun violence resumed with the shooting of a 15-year-old boy, who heard shots while walking in the South Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side, police said. He was hit in the lower back and taken to the hospital in serious condition.

Chicago’s previous daylong streak was in March, when 28 hours passed without a victim of a shooting crime being reported.

Before that, no shootings were reported on Jan. 14, though two people were hurt in accidental discharges that day.

Trump slammed Chicago when it hadn’t gone a day without a shooting in months

During a visit to Chicago last month, President Donald Trump said Chicago with its high rate of murders compared unfavorably with Afghanistan, where the United States has been at war since an invasion triggered by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“It’s embarrassing to us as a nation. All over the world, they’re talking about Chicago. Afghanistan is a safe place by comparison, it’s true,” said Trump.

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Trump contrasted Chicago’s strict gun laws with its crime rate.

“Chicago has the strictest gun laws in the United States,” he said, slightly overstating the case. “That doesn’t seem to be working too well, does it?”

Homicides in Chicago in 2018 numbered 561, down from 653 in 2017. The Chicago Tribune said 460 homicides had been recorded so far in 2019 in the third most-populous U.S. city.

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Andrew Tobin is Pluralist’s Editor-in-chief.

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