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As summer begins to wind down heading into the Labor Day holiday, the United States' third-largest city experienced one of its most deadly weekends of gun violence this year.
According to NBC Chicago, at least nine people were killed and 37 others wounded in shootings throughout the city Friday evening into late Sunday.
Among those fatally shot Sunday was Johnny Howell, 19, who was standing with a 23-year-old man in the 600 block of East 67th Street when a vehicle pulled up to them and opened fire, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
Howell was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Through early Sunday, more than 30 people were shot in Chicago, seven of them fatally. Prior to the weekend beginning, at least 17 people were wounded in gun violence Thursday evening, including 13 people shot over a period of 30 minutes.
The previous weekend, the city tied its highest number of homicides in one day this year when six people were killed on Aug. 18. That weekend also saw at least 36 additional non-fatal shootings citywide.
The recent violence rivals that of a Memorial Day weekend that left 11 dead and more than 40 wounded in shootings in Chicago.
In an interview on CBS Chicago Monday, Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy called violence in Chicago "an ongoing grind" that is "not going to be over tomorrow," nor the day after that.
McCarthy also called his department's diffusion of what could have been a dangerous situation in the city's Gold Coast neighborhood Saturday evening as successful. Police responded rapidly to reports of large groups of teens pushing people into the street.
On Saturday, McCarthy commented that his police department is "basically treading water" when it comes to its efforts to curb violence, which he called "unacceptable."
As of the end of July, homicides this year are up about 27 percent over 2011 and that year-over-year surge is expected to increase once August numbers are in.
In related news, according to a Chicago Tribune analysis, police have struggled to solve the vast majority of non-fatal shootings in the city this year as victims have refused to cooperate with authorities. Investigations into nearly 80 percent of non-fatal shootings in Chicago through the first seven months of the year have been suspended.
In an analysis released Sunday evening by the Chicago Sun-Times, a large number of the guns recovered from Chicago crime scenes are purchased in Cook County, contrary to the perception that firearms are being brought in from other states with less restrictive gun laws.
Police over a three-day drug bust across three districts over the weekend in Chicago arrested just more than 300 people and took over 100 guns off the streets, NBC Chicago reports. Police have repeatedly emphasized the links between the city's drug market, street gangs and shootings.
Gun violence in Chicago was the subject of a recent segment on HuffPost Live, which featured a panel of activists and journalists including Father Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Church weighing in on what has been a violent summer in the Windy City.
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