The Chicago Tribune crime team continues to track shooting victims and records a current unsettlingly high number of 620 people shot in 2021. Chicago continues to uphold its violent and murderous debut with a series of new shootings this week.

 Five people were shot, one of them fatally in a drive-by on the South Side. Police said a twenty-one year-old man was wounded when he was walking in the 8000 block of South Drexel Avenue, and a white sedan with two men pulled up and someone inside the vehicle opened fire. The man was struck in the foot and brought to immediate medical attention at Jackson Park Hospital.

On the South Side, another man was injured due to a shooting occurring on the 3100 block of South Prairie Avenue. Several people approached a 43-year-old sitting in his car and one of them unleashed gunfire. The man was struck in both the leg and shoulder and was brought to Chicago Medical Center in critical condition. 

Four people were killed and at least sixteen were injured as a result of gun violence. A 10-year-old boy was wounded in a triple shooting when he was sitting in a vehicle with two other people and someone approached them unleashing gunfire. A man was struck in the side and pronounced dead at the scene on Friday in the 3100 block of West Street Lake. The woman was struck in the thigh and ankle, the ten-year-old was shot in the leg. They were both taken to the hospital in good condition.

Prominent figures in Chicago are battling the brutal gun issues present in today’s world, Mayor Lori Lightfoot is on a journey to combat gun violence with a multitude of resources for the South and West sides. At a press conference, Lightfoot professed, “We cannot normalize this behavior…. We cannot shelter the people who are recklessly destroying the fabric of our community and, particularly, bringing harm to our children.” Lightfoot is taking proactive steps to establish her progressive vision. She chiseled out a public safety office to raise awareness and filled her administration with experts in community-based violence protection programs and police reforms.