A deeper dive into mass shootings in Chicago
CHICAGO (CBS) – On Oct. 25, a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine took the lives of 18 people and injured more than a dozen others.
In Chicago, an Oct. 29 early-morning shooting left 15 people hit by gunfire at a Halloween party in North Lawndale.
Now, the CBS 2 Investigators are taking a deeper look into mass shootings around the country and in Chicago.
2023
Chicago holds the top spot for mass shooting incidents so far this year, with 32 separate cases where at least four people were shot – not including the suspect. CBS 2 analyzed data from the Gun Violence Archive and found that other major cities fall well behind Chicago in the number of incidents and the total number of people shot.
However, when looking at per capita numbers, that is adjusting for the population size of the cities with the most incidents, Chicago comes in fifth place behind Cleveland, Baltimore, Memphis and Washington, D.C.
So far this year 25 people in Chicago have died in mass shootings, while 136 have been injured. That's 161 people – the most victims of any city in the country.
The latest mass shooting in Chicago is the one with the highest tally of victims in one incident this year. But the number of victims in the double digits is not an unusual occurrence especially in recent years. There was one incident in each of 2019, 2020, and 2022 where 12 or more people were shot at one time. The year 2021 had three incidents where 10 or more people were shot in a single case.
Historical context
A total of 161 people were killed or injured in Chicago in 32 mass shootings as of Monday, Oct. 30, 2023. In 2020, 223 people had become victims in 47 incidents by this date, and 31 of those victims lost their lives.
2021 ended the year with the most mass shooting incidents (60) and victims in recent years, 315. A total of 31 of those died.
If you go back to 2014 and 2015, the data show just over a dozen incidents with under 100 victims from mass shootings each year.
Why are there more victims now than a decade ago? It's hard for experts to settle on a reason. One obstacle is the definition of mass shooting. Some call a mass shooting if more than one person is killed. For our purposes in this reporting, the definition is four or more shot. No one has to lose their life.
Some experts believe domestic violence plays a huge role in mass shootings.
