Four major U.S cities have been struck by widespread shooting attacks that have left over 39 people injured and six dead. The surge in gun violence has alarmed authorities of the potential risk that a summer marked with violence and bloodshed is just starting to begin.
Police authorities in Austin, Chicago, Cleveland, and Savannah have been looking into the widespread shootings that began on Friday and went on till the early hours of Saturday. In a weekend news conference, Savannah Police Chief Roy Minter Jr addressed a shooting that left one person dead and at least eight others wounded.
“It’s very disturbing what we’re seeing across the country and the level of gun violence that we’re seeing across the country. It’s disturbing and it’s senseless,” said the Savannah officer. On Sunday morning, a cohort of Savannah police officials was working to locate the identity of suspects who arrived in a Sedan and opened fire at people standing in a neighborhood of Savannah on Friday at 9 pm.
The widespread shooting left two adults in a critical condition, whilst a baby and two teenagers, aged 15 and 16 respectively suffered less serious wounds. Minton further added that the team of police officers found 60 shell casings from the gunfire. Several houses and cars in the vicinity had also been damaged by the shooting.
Nearly four hours after the Savannah shooting, massive gunfire occurred on a street in Austin’s entertainment district downtown, where one was left dead, 13 were wounded and one person was left in critical condition. According to interim police chief Joseph Chacon, one suspect has been arrested and a search for the other is still underway.
Chacon also said the widespread shooting began at about 1.24 am and seemed to have been triggered by a dispute amongst two groups. Steve Adler, the Austin Mayor took to Twitter to note that the mass shooting occurred even as the state made extensive efforts to initiate violence prevention programs to counter the recent increase of attacks in Texas city.
The shooting in Austin was soon followed by gunfire that erupted on a sidewalk at Southside Chicago, which left a woman dead and nine injured, as reported by the police. Chicago authorities said they are trying to locate the two suspects who walked up to a crowd on the sidewalk and fired a barrage of shots soon after 2 am on Saturday. The Cook County Medical Examiner traced the identity of 29-year-old Kimfier Miles, the woman who was shot dead by the suspect.
ABC News reports, 44 people were shot in the Chicago shooting, of whom six succumbed to their wounds since Friday. The Gun Violence Archive, an online website that keeps a track of shootings across the city reports that a total of 270 widespread shootings have occurred across the country. In conversation with The Associated Press, Chuck Wexler, who serves as the executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum said there was hope for these widespread shootings to just be a “statistical blip,” but that is yet to happen.
