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Chicago sees 12 shootings in 4 hours as gang warfare rages on

(CBS News) - A dozen people were shot and wounded Tuesday night in Chicago, a bloody start to the July 4 holiday in a city which has seen a dramatic rise in gang-related violence this year.

CBS 2 in Chicago, in conjunction with the Sun-Times Media Wire, reports that three people remained hospitalized in critical condition, and a 15-year-old boy shot while playing basketball was in serious condition.

At least five separate shootings were reported between 5 p.m. and just before 9 p.m., according to CBS 2.

CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds reported earlier this week that, as of Monday, Chicago police had already reported 240 homicides in 2012.

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The violence, which is usually linked to gang warfare, rose to national headlines with the death last week of 7-year-old Heaven Sutton - shot as she stood too close to the intended target of an alleged gang member.

"She died in my arms. That's what makes it so bad," the little girl's mother, Ashake Banks, told Reynolds. "She took her last breath in my arms."

"Bullets don't have no names on them, and they're just shooting at anybody," Heaven's uncle Tavares Harrington told CBS News.

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