Chicago recorded its deadliest month in two decades in August 2016, part of a sharp rise in gun violence in the nation’s third-largest city this year. The Labor Day weekend saw 65 people shot, 13 fatally. So far in 2016, the city has had more than 500 homicides and more than 2,953 people have been victims of shootings, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The fatal shooting of NBA star Dwyane Wade’s cousin brought renewed focus to the problem of gun violence in Chicago. Wade’s cousin, Nykea Aldridge, who was shot Friday, Aug. 26, 2016, while pushing her baby in a stroller near a school, was one of nearly 20 people killed that week, according to police.
Photo: Pictures of Chicago residents killed by gunfire are posted next to a Christmas tree outside Saint Sabina Church in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood on the city’s South Side on December 23, 2013.