CHICAGO _ Five people were killed and at least 32 others were wounded in shootings in Chicago from Friday afternoon to early Monday, a weekend during which Chicago Police and other law enforcement agencies conducted "targeted enforcement missions" to combat violence on the South and West sides.
The toll was down from the more than 50 people shot each of the previous two weekends. But the number was still twice as high as the comparable weekend last year, when 18 people were shot, one of them fatally.
Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said the department deployed an additional "several hundred" uniformed officers and officers from the Cook County Sheriff's Department, Illinois State Police and FBI to three city districts: Gresham on the South Side, and the Ogden and Austin districts on the West Side.
Forty-four people were arrested in the targeted zones. Officers also seized 12 weapons during the 30-hour mission, Johnson said at a news conference Monday.
"Our combined efforts were meant to send a clear message to criminals in these communities that their actions will not go without consequences and to let residents know that we're there to help them take their communities back," he said.
Officers conducted vehicle stops, traffic enforcement, warrant missions, parole compliance checks and custom notifications for people on what police refer to as their "strategic subject list," a compilation of people who police believe are likely to be perpetrators or victims of violence.
Johnson said the zones were based on crime data and intelligence gathering that pointed to where retaliatory violence might occur. He said only one shooting incident was reported in the three zones during the 20 hours, at a house party that spilled onto the street and resulted in an arrest.
"I'm a realist. Like many of you, I know that one mission doesn't erase the tragic violence that we've seen over the year," Johnson said. "What it does do, however, is set the stage for additional missions like this to reduce the levels of violence we've seen in some of our most affected areas."
With more than 675 homicides recorded this year, Chicago could easily surpass 700 homicides before the end of the year for the first time since 1998, according to data kept by the Chicago Tribune. Homicides are up in the city by 54 percent compared with the same period in 2015, and shootings are up 46 percent, according to Tribune data.
Violence typically declines during cold weather, but 2016 has been an exception. At least 50 people were killed in January, the deadliest start to a year since at least 2000.
