At least 33 people were killed in shootings and other violence during the July 4 Independence Day long weekend, authorities said, including 11 in Chicago, and dozens more were injured across the country.
July 4 is historically one of the deadliest days of the year. A series of shootings surrounding the holiday a year ago left more than a dozen people dead and over 60 injured. And a year earlier, seven people died in a mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade near Chicago.
The summer months often see increased violence and mass shootings because more people gather for social events, young people are out of school, and temperatures are higher.
In Chicago alone, 11 people were killed and 55 injured in shootings during the July 4 long weekend as of Friday morning, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The violence included a mass shooting on Thursday that left two women and an 8-year-old boy dead.
The recent violence “has left our city in a state of mourning,” said Mayor Brandon Johnson.
A community rally is planned for Friday evening and the city will increase police presence over the weekend, Johnson said in a statement.
Shortly after midnight on Friday, eight people were injured in Chicago’s Little Italy neighborhood. About 90 minutes later, six people were injured in a shooting in the Austin neighborhood. Police said preliminary findings indicate that the two shootings were an exchange of gunfire between two people who then fled.
Due to recent violence at a popular beach on Chicago’s Lake Michigan, authorities have closed the beach every night over the holiday weekend as a precautionary measure. 31st Street Beach has been the site of recent stabbings and shootings.
In Huntington Beach, California, two people were killed and three others injured in an Independence Day attack less than two hours after a fireworks display ended, police said. Authorities arrested a suspect Thursday night after responding to reports of an attack with a deadly weapon.
In the northeast Ohio community of Niles, Police Chief Jay Holland said a 15-year-old boy was in custody after a 23-year-old man was shot and killed at an Independence Day party at a residence Thursday night.
A 10-year-old girl was also shot in a Cleveland neighborhood, police said. It is not yet known what sparked the shooting or if she was the target.
A 19-year-old man was killed and six others injured in a drive-by shooting in Philadelphia on Thursday evening.
The injured, including four teenagers, were treated in hospitals for various injuries that were not considered life-threatening. It is not yet known what sparked the shooting.
Following the Fourth of July celebrations, three shootings occurred in Boston that left one man dead. The fatal shooting occurred at around 1:30 a.m. Friday in a park near Boston’s South End. Three other people were injured in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood around the same time. In a third shooting at a gas station, one victim later suffered life-threatening injuries.
A 17-year-old man suffered an abdominal injury in another shooting Thursday evening in the parking lot of a condominium in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts.
In Connecticut, a woman was found shot to death in her car early Friday and pronounced dead at the hospital. Police identified her as Shamyria Williams, 23, of Hartford. Relatives told reporters they believed she had just left an Independence Day party.
According to police in Albany, New York, six men between the ages of 16 and 19 are being treated in a hospital for injuries that are not considered life-threatening following a shooting at a large crowd.
Police responded to reports of a shooting at a home around 12:15 a.m. Friday. None of the victims were found at the scene, but police said they found evidence in the yard behind the home and on the street suggesting gunfire.
A shot teenager stopped police officers on the street a short time later, police said.
Four people were injured in a shooting outside an adult nightclub in Tampa early Friday after an altercation broke out between the club’s security guard and two men, police said.
The two men drove up to the Pink Pussycat Lounge and one of them shot the security guard with a handgun, police said. The security guard underwent surgery at the hospital and is in stable condition. Three other men suffered minor injuries of undetermined severity. Police said both suspects were arrested and charged with multiple crimes.
In the New York City borough of Queens, an 8-year-old boy was stabbed to death in an apartment in what police described as a domestic dispute. Officers later shot and killed a 20-year-old man who held a knife to his 43-year-old father’s throat and refused to drop the weapon.
In High Point, North Carolina, one person was killed in a shooting during an unofficial fireworks display after a large crowd gathered in the city’s parking lot about 90 miles west of Raleigh, police said. The victim was identified as Keith S. Lynch, 32, of High Point.
Two men were killed and five others injured, two seriously, in shootings at two Independence Day gatherings in the St. Louis area, police said.
In West Virginia, 42-year-old Charles Speer of Kermit died early Friday after being shot multiple times following a physical altercation at another man’s home, state police said.
And according to the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office, an incident of road rage led to the fatal shooting of a 36-year-old man in Taneytown, Maryland.
Other shootings early Thursday included a police officer executing an arrest warrant in Cleveland and an armed person making threats in Yellowstone National Park.
Information for this article was contributed by Rick Callahan, Bruce Shipkowski, Susan Haigh, Steve LeBlanc, Curt Anderson, Jonathan Drew, Jim Salter and Karen Matthews of The Associated Press.
The temporary memorial for Highland Park shooting victims Katie Goldstein, Irina McCarthy, Kevin Michael McCarthy, Stephen Straus, Jacki Lovi Sundheim, Nicolás Toledo and Eduardo Uvaldo is seen near 1707 St. Johns Avenue in Highland Park, Illinois, on Thursday, July 4, 2024, two years after the mass shooting at the parade. (Pat Nabong/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Paradegoers march with Moms Demand Action during the Independence Day Parade along Central Avenue in Highland Park, Ill., Thursday, July 4, 2024, two years after a mass shooting at the parade. (Pat Nabong/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Erin Cartwright Weinstein, clerk of the Lake County District Court, is hugged during the Independence Day parade along Central Avenue in Highland Park, Ill., Thursday, July 4, 2024. (Pat Nabong/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
