Multiple people were shot in downtown Chicago neighborhoods over holiday weekend as crime keeps rising
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago saw one of the most violent Memorial Day weekends in years – with 50 people shot and nine of them killed.
One of the latest shootings involved a 19-year-old woman riding her bike Monday night near DuSable Harbor along the lakefront downtown. She was one of at least five people shot in downtown neighborhoods after we heard about a safety focus there heading into the holiday weekend.
As CBS 2's Tara Molina reported Tuesday, the greater downtown area incidents also included a shooting that wounded a 39-year-old man and a 26-year-old woman in the alley behind the 300 block of West Chicago Avenue in River North early Monday morning; and a third on Sunday night in which a woman was shot in the 500 block of West Erie Street, also in River North.
An 18-year-old man was also wounded by gunfire in the 700 block of South Michigan Avenue in the South Loop early Sunday, though it was not clear what happened in that incident.
The Erie Street shooting happened around 10 p.m. Sunday in a playground at Montgomery Ward Park, near where both Larrabee and Erie streets end in a traffic circle just east of the Chicago River's North Branch.
A man of an unspecified age and a 20-year-old woman were sitting in a parked car when three or four men came up. One assailant reached into the car and punched the man in the face.
The victims tried to drive away, at which point one of the assailants took out a gun and started shooting at the car, police said. The woman – who was in the passenger seat – was shot in the back and was rushed to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. She remained in serious condition as of Tuesday afternoon.
We ran the numbers since 2015. Violence is now at a near all-time high in River North.
Meanwhile at DuSable Harbor near DuSable Lake Shore and Wacker drives, a 19-year-old woman was riding her bike just before 10 p.m. Monday when a man started yelling at her.
He pulled a gun and began shooting at the woman before running away, police said. The woman was shot in the thigh.
Fortunately, there was no violence reported on Chicago beaches. But there were 13 arrests on Memorial Day at the North Avenue Beach in which people were handcuffed and taken away.
There were also 11 guns seized at the beach. Someone pulled a gun on another person in the crowd at one point, said CPD Chief of Operations Brian McDermott.
"Who takes a gun to the beach?" police Supt. David Brown said at a news conference Tuesday. "Why do you need a gun to enjoy the beach?"
The crowd at North Avenue Beach on Monday afternoon also threw bottles at officers – and someone even threw a pineapple. The pineapple hit an officer in the chest and exploded, also getting all over his equipment, McDermott said at the news conference.
Officers eventually stopped anyone else from entering the beach.
With a focus on the downtown area, we ran the numbers and found violent crime at a near all-time high, since 2015, in three downtown neighborhoods. These numbers don't include the weekend.
In the Loop community area, where that 19-year-old girl was just shot, violent crime only higher back in 2018. Aggravated assaults the highest we've seen.
It is a similar story in nearby Streeterville, just north of the Chicago River, where violent crime is the highest we've tracked since 2015. Aggravated assaults and homicides are at all-time at highs.
In River North, on the opposite side of the Magnificent Mile, violent crime is close to the high in 2018, and aggravated assaults are at an all-time high.
Chicago Police say they are still investigating every one of those downtown shootings, with no one in custody Tuesday afternoon.
