Independence Day chaos across US with two children shot dead in Chicago

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Gunfire broke out in cities across the US during Independence Day celebrations, leaving dozens of people injured and at least 27 dead. 

Chicago, appeared to experience the worst of the violence on Saturday as 63 people were injured and 17 were killed, including two children. Meanwhile in New York City, 37 people were injured and at least four were killed. 

Memphis, Omaha, Cleveland and several other cities were also rocked by a spate of shootings amid the holiday revelry. 

One of the children killed in Chicago was identified by her family as seven-year-old Natalie Wallace.   

The girl was playing outside her grandmother’s house in the city’s Austin neighborhood during a Fourth of July party when a vehicle pulled up and three men emerged and began shooting indiscriminately at about 7pm. 

Natalie was shot in the head and rushed to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead, according to the Chicago Tribune. 

‘Chicago’s heart is broke,’ Chicago police Chief Fred Waller said. ‘A 7-year-old girl was taken from us. She was here visiting family. Now she’s gone.’  

Mayor Lori Lightfoot tweeted: ‘Tonight, a 7-year-old girl in Austin joined a list of teenagers and children whose hopes and dreams were ended by the barrel of a gun.

‘We cannot grow numb to this. We are making progress in slowing shootings, but we have to do better, every single one of us.’ 

Seven other people were wounded in the same Austin attack, including a 32-year-old man who is now in fair condition. 

Waller said police are reviewing video of the incident and no arrests have been made. 

Another shooting in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood left four people dead, including a 14-year-old boy who has not yet been identified. 

Four others were wounded in that shooting, including boys ages 11 and 15.   

The Tribune reported that four men stormed a holiday gathering and opened fire before fleeing the scene. They have yet to be arrested.  

Three other shootings in Chicago on Saturday killed a 34-year-old woman, a 31-year-old man and a 20-year-old man, per ABC7.

A total of 63 people were injured and 17 killed in the Windy City from Thursday afternoon to Sunday 6am.

In a shooting in Lawndale, on the city’s West Side, six people were shot at about 1.15am after someone in a vehicle fired into a group shooting off fireworks. 

A 20-year-old woman was killed and three men were left in critical condition. Two other men are in good condition following the shooting.

Last year in Chicago over Fourth of July weekend six people were killed and 63 were wounded by gun violence.

Saturday marked the city’s third consecutive weekend where a child under 10 has been fatally shot. 

The Chicago Police Department deployed 1,200 additional officers over the weekend with a goal of reducing violence that accompanies the holiday each year.

‘It’s not just on the police department. Not just on the fire department. Not just on elected officials,’ Mayor Lightfoot said in announcing the increased police presence. 

‘All of us have to embrace our notion of community and think about what we can do, each of us in our own way, to make our communities safe and healthy and vibrant.’  

Many other cities reported an alarming increase in gunfire mixed in with the celebratory fireworks on Saturday. 

In New York City, at least 41 people were shot, four fatally, in shootings overnight, police said. 

A 20-year-old man died after he was shot in the chest at about 12.45am Sunday in Brooklyn.  

Less than two hours later a 23-year-old man was shot in the back in Harlem before being rushed to the hospital. 

Authorities said the man, who has not been identified, was uncooperative when he was interviewed by police before he died in the hospital. 

That shooting is still under investigation as detectives canvas the area for ballistic evidence and video.  

Details about the other shootings in the Big Apple were not immediately available.  

They came after the city experienced it’s deadliest June in 24 years with 205 shootings reported.  

In Detroit two people were killed and five were injured in gun violence over the holiday weekend.

A family of five people was driving home from a cook out when they were shot around 1am on Saturday in the 8300 block of Homer Street when someone pulled up beside them and started shooting.

A 39-year-old woman died in the shooting. A 40-year-old man is in critical condition and the three other male victims – aged nine, 12, and 15 – are expected to survive, according to ClickOnDetroit.

Also in Detroit a 15-year-old boy was shot early Saturday around 12.10am when a vehicle pulled up and a passenger asked the victim a question then shot the teen, according to Fox2. He is in stable condition but that shooter has not been caught.

On Friday around 7.30pm a 19-year-old woman was shot and killed on the city’s west side after someone fired shots into the car she was a passenger in.

Gun violence also rocked Baltimore, leaving one person dead and eight injured.

Baltimore Police said a woman was killed and a man were wounded in a double shooting on Saturday morning.

Hours earlier on Friday night four women were shot in a quadruple shooting in southwest Baltimore.

On Saturday evening a 20-year-old man and a 21-year-old man were injured in a shooting around 7.30pm.

A 28-year-old man was found in the southeast side of the city early Sunday suffering gunshot wounds. 

In St. Louis a child is left in critical condition after being shot in the head around 10.45pm. 

At least seven shootings were reported in Memphis, Tennessee, on Saturday, leaving four people wounded and one dead, according to WREG. 

A woman was fatally shot while watching fireworks on Saturday night.

A teenager in the Whitehaven neighborhood was rushed to the hospital in critical condition after neighbors reported hearing an argument at a home before gunfire broke out.  

‘We were over here,’ a witness to that shooting said. ‘We were just fixing up our tables, and next thing we know, we see the ambulances come all around, and then the police came. I said: “What’s done happened here?”‘ 

‘I could just imagine what the other people’s family is doing, what they’re going through,’ the witness added.

About 30 minutes later, a woman was driving on Interstate 240 when a man driving a gold Pontiac began shooting at her vehicle. 

Police said that woman is okay but the suspect has not been captured.  

Another shooting in South Memphis on Saturday night left two men injured. 

One of the men told WREG he was backing out of his driveway on Alcy Road when he was shot at by three men driving by in a Saturn Vue.  

‘When I backed into the middle of the street, I kind of paused for a little bit because I heard a lot of fireworks, what I thought were fireworks, but they were gunshots,’ the man said.  

The first victim said the attack appeared to be random.  

‘They’re just shooting,’ he said. ‘The car was in front of them, and they’re just shooting. They don’t know those people. They’re just shooting at those folks because they were in front of them.’ 

No arrests have been made in any of the Memphis shootings, police said. 

At least five shootings were reported in Cleveland in the first five hours of July Fourth, leaving four people wounded. 

And in Omaha, Nebraska, police have asked the public for information on six separate shootings reported between Friday night and early Saturday morning. 

Eight people were injured in those shootings and all are expected to recover. 

In Philadelphia four people were shot over the weekend. 

The first shooting was reported around 10.30pm on Saturday where a 37-year-old woman was shot twice in her legs and a 21-year-old male was grazed by a bullet in the head. Both are in stable condition.

A second shooting left two men, 26 and 22, suffering gunshot wounds to the leg. Both are in stable condition.

Authorities in Greenville County, South Carolina, are currently investigating a shooting at a nightclub that left two people dead and eight wounded.  

Video footage posted to social media showed people at what appeared to be a rap concert inside the club. The clip shows people inside the club hurrying toward the exit before the screen goes blank and gunshots are heard in the background. 

Two Greenville County sheriff’s deputies noticed a disturbance at Lavish Lounge just before 2am, and saw a large crowd running out of the building, Sheriff Hobart Lewis said at a press conference. 

Lewis told Greenville News the incident was ‘probably gang related’. He said authorities are searching for two suspects, though no physical description of the gunmen has been released as of Sunday morning. 

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