At least 43 people shot in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend. ‘Unacceptable state of affairs,’ new mayor says

At least 43 people were shot, seven fatally, in Chicago over the Memorial Day weekend even as severe storms kept people indoors and 1,200 extra officers patrolled the streets.

The toll was slightly higher than last year’s Memorial Day weekend, when 39 people were shot, seven of them fatally, according to shooting data kept by the Tribune. In 2017, 45 people were shot, seven of them killed. And in 2016, 71 people shot, six of them fatally, in one of the most violent Memorial Day weekends in recent years.

“That is just an unacceptable state of affairs,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot told reporters after a Monday ceremony at a Grant Park monument to commemorate the nation’s war dead.

It’s a challenge for us in communities to dig down deeper and ask ourselves what we can do to step up to stem the violence.”

Repeating a main talking point of police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, Lightfoot said a critical part of the city’s strategy is getting illegal guns off the streets by focusing on gun traffickers, felons carrying guns and those who have their firearm ownership cards revoked.

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