At least 101 people were shot in Chicago over the Fourth of July weekend, according to a city newspaper.<\/p>\n
Nearly half of the shootings during the four-day holiday happened over 12 hours, reports the Chicago Tribune.<\/p>\n
The youngest victim was a 13-year-old boy and the oldest a 60-year-old man.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump recently said he was sending in federal agents to help local police contain the Illinois city’s gang wars.<\/p>\n
About half of the shootings happened between 15:30 on Tuesday and 03:30 on Wednesday, mainly in Chicago’s south and west sides.<\/p>\n
Not even the deployment of more than 1,000 extra officers by Chicago police department could staunch the violence.<\/p>\n
The casualties are significantly higher than 2016, when 66 people were shot in Chicago over the Independence Day weekend, which lasted three days.<\/p>\n
It brings the total number of people shot in Chicago so far in 2017 to more than 1,800,\u00a0reports the Tribune<\/a>.<\/p>\n But that figure is not as severe as last year when 2,035 people had been shot by this point.<\/p>\n At the weekend, Chicago police said shootings this year had declined 14% compared with the first six months of last year.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"