Chicago leaders are optimistic that violence in the city could be trending in a positive direction after police reported there were no murders over Memorial Day weekend — a first in at least a decade.
Last year, there were four homicides during the same time period. Despite the drop in homicide rates over Memorial Day weekend, there was an uptick in both the number of people shot and the number of shooting incidents.
Across the city, 36 people were injured in 23 separate shooting incidents over Memorial Day weekend (from 6 p.m. on May 22 through 11:59 p.m. on May 25), according to the Chicago Police Department. That’s slightly higher than in 2025, when 22 shootings left 25 people with injuries.
“While we are encouraged by the comparatively low number of fatal shootings citywide and zero homicides over the holiday weekend, the work ahead is plentiful. Any act of violence is unacceptable,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a statement on Tuesday.
Of those 23 shooting incidents this year, at least three were mass shootings.
Four teenagers were injured by gunfire around 3 a.m. on the 2500 block of South Washtenaw in Little Village. An 18-year-old woman and a 16-year-old girl were both shot, and a 14-year-old boy and 16-year-old girl were grazed by bullets in the incident, police said. All were taken to a local hospital where they were initially listed in good condition.
Two 19-year-olds and an 18-year-old were shot around 10 p.m. on Monday while at a large gathering on the 1600 block of East 55th Street in East Hyde Park, police said. All three were taken to a local hospital where they were all initially listed in good condition.
Roughly an hour later, four people were shot while outside on the 4800 block of West Fulton Street on the border of South Austin and West Garfield Park. A 35-year-old man, a 34-year-old woman, a 27-year-old man and a 23-year-old man were all shot and transported to a local hospital where they were all initially listed in good condition, police said.
Chicago police are continuing to investigate both incidents.
Damien Morris, who runs the violence intervention program for Breakthrough Ministries in East Garfield Park, credits the reduction in violent crime to an increased investment from the city in youth employment and community violence intervention efforts.
Morris led a team of 80 people over Memorial Day weekend, patrolling the East Garfield Park neighborhood and monitoring for teen gatherings. He said a four-shift strategy that he created allows their team to have 24/7 coverage.
“This year the city also funded an additional two days for our peacekeeping program, but then we are also providing services to at risk individuals […] who are susceptible to becoming a victim of gun violence or a perpetrator of gun violence,” Morris said.
After a weekend with less deadly violence than in the past, Morris says he and his team “feel good in some senses, but are extremely concerned still.”
“We feel good in the sense that, hey, look, the mayor’s vision is working here, but still concerned,” Morris said. “Look, there were shootings.”
Emmanuel Andre, Chicago’s Deputy Mayor for Community Safety, says he believes added investment from the city is paying off. However, concerns are rising that the pendulum could shift in the wrong direction as the billions in federal COVID relief money the city was able to spend on those initiatives have dried up.
“There’s always concern when you don’t have the level of investments that you had access to and that resources are not infinite. Resources are finite and it causes us to make some really difficult decisions as to what and where should money be invested,” Andre said.
The homicide-free holiday weekend comes amid a long-term decline in homicides. While murder rates in Chicago so far in 2026 are up 3% year-to-date in comparison to 2025, they’re down 19% from 2024 and 30% from 2023, according to CPD data. Shooting incidents also had a 4% increase year-to-date compared to 2025, though they’re down 31% compared to 2024 and 38% compared to 2023.
Criminologists say Chicago’s numbers follow a nationwide trend that began after crime peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Morris says the decrease comes down to community members getting to know at risk young people and working block-by-block to maintain peace in the city.
“One of our strategies is relationship building,” Morris said. “We rely on that to really resolve some conflicts.”
Though police are reporting zero homicides for Memorial Day weekend this year as of Tuesday afternoon, two people died after sustaining gunshot wounds over the weekend, according to Chicago police.
A death investigation was launched after a 32-year-old man was discovered unresponsive inside a vehicle with a gunshot wound to the head and pronounced dead by authorities around 11:22 a.m. on Monday on the 200 block of North Francisco Avenue in East Garfield Park. A firearm was also recovered from the scene, police said.
Authorities are also investigating after a 2-year-old boy named Jamonte Shaw shot himself around 12:40 p.m. on Sunday on the 900 block of East 104th Street in Roseland. He was transported to a local hospital, where he was initially listed in critical condition before later being pronounced dead, authorities said. A 31-year-old man was taken into custody, police said, and an investigation remains ongoing.
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