Two dead, 7 wounded in shooting in Chicago's downtown
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The latest shooting spree in the United States targets people just out a McDonald's.
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Two dead, 7 wounded in shooting in Chicago's downtown
Authorities and local media in Chicago reported on Friday that a suspect was arrested by the local police due to a fatal shooting that escalated from a fight outside a restaurant and moved to a nearby train line.
On Thursday night, at least two people died and 10 got injured after gunfire erupted outside a McDonald’s, authorities said. Chicago police spokesperson Tom Ahern said a gun was recovered at the crime scene.
“I was getting off the train and I spotted a group of teens fighting,” Deonna Jackson, a witness, told the Chicago Tribune. “The teens started rushing towards me and they’re all attacking one person - they were jumping someone.”
An investigation started, according to authorities, who did not yet release details about the victims.
The wounded, who were in “serious to critical condition,” were transported to the hospital, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Lori Lightfoot, Mayor of Chicago, earlier prohibited unaccompanied minors from the city’s Millennium Park after 6 pm from Thursday till Sunday following a deadly shooting that involved teenagers there last weekend.
Similar to several other US cities, Chicago has seen a surge of deadly attacks since the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
Read more: A gun is worth a thousand Nazi words
According to the organization Gun Violence Archive (GVA), more than 15,070 people have died from gun violence since the beginning of the year in the United States, including suicides.
Over the whole of 2020, the number was at 45,000 dead, said GVA, a figure which has prompted the White House to speak of an "epidemic".
From January 2016 to December 2021, the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) received approximately 45,240 reports of suspected privately made firearms recovered by law enforcement, the Justice Department noted. Those reports were linked to at least 692 homicide or attempted homicide investigations.
Over the past five-year period, the ATF could only trace 0.98% of suspected "ghost guns" handed in by law enforcement to an individual purchaser, the department added.
Last month, US President Joe Biden announced Monday new measures cracking down on so-called "ghost guns" with an executive order to increase restrictions on the difficult-to-trace weapons that can be assembled at home.
At a White House gathering that brought together families of shooting victims, Biden said the number of "ghost guns" reported by the police had increased tenfold between 2016 and 2021.
According to the organization Gun Violence Archive, more than 11,700 people have died by firearms since the beginning of the year in the United States, including suicides.
So far in 2022, according to the organization, 12,166 have sustained injuries from gun violence, with a total of 179 shootings carried out over the United States.
