Chicago shootings: 51 shot, 9 fatally over Memorial Day weekend

At least 51 people have been shot, nine fatally, in Chicago over the Memorial Day weekend, with the US city again living up to its violent history.

The Chicago Police Department had canceled officers' holidays in anticipation of the historically violent unofficial start of summer.

The West Side of the city saw a half of the shooting victims, while about 13 victims were found on the South Side. The downtown area, which has seen several high-profile attacks in May, had three shooting victims.

Shootings had outpaced last year's Memorial Day weekend by Monday morning when 37 people were shot, three of them fatally.

Authorities said at least nine of this weekend's shooting victims had died by Monday morning. More than a quarter of victims were injured in a single West Side police district -the 11th Harrison District -which had two mass shootings on Sunday.

The incidents occurred under Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Police Superintendent David Brown's holiday safety plan, months in the making, which included more officers on the street, canceled days off and 21-hour days.

"It was a little tiring I would say, having to work," Damian Alfaro, a new police graduate, said. "I worked 11 straight days, but I mean it's all learning."

A new class of police recruits graduated and other officers were promoted.

"You represent the next generation of officers helping to transform our department through visibility, engagement and collaboration,” Alfaro said.  

Meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, US President Joe Biden on Tuesday asked New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s advice after the latest US mass shooting on tackling a rise in gun violence and extremist ideologies, AFP reported.

Biden referred to the 2019 Christchurch killing of 51 people in mass shootings targeting Muslims.

Prime Minister Ardern banned military-style rifles following the carnage, and a gun buy-back was also instituted.

"We need your guidance," Biden said, calling for a "global effort to counter violence and extremism online."

"I want to work with you on that effort," said Biden, who visited the Texan town of Uvalde on Sunday to mourn the deaths of 19 children and two teachers slain by a white gunman using an assault-style rifle.

Biden said there was an "awful lot of suffering" and that "much of it is preventable."

On May 24, nineteen students and two teachers were shot and killed at Robb Elementary School by a gunman in Uvalde, Texas, 10 days after a mass shooting at a store n Buffalo, New York, left 10 people dead.

Police say the gunman, identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, entered the school with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle after earlier shooting his grandmother, who survived.

There have been conflicting accounts of how law enforcement responded to the shooting. The Department of Justice on Sunday said it would open an investigation into the police response at the request of Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin.

More than 45,000 people were killed by gun violence in the United States last year, up from 43,671 in 2020 and 39,581 in 2019, according to FBI data.

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