Chicago left reeling after violent weekend of gun crime

Chicago suffered a weekend of serious gun violence as nine people were killed, including a seven-year-old boy, and at least 46 were injured in shootings over the July 4th holiday weekend.

The boy, Amari Brown, was shot and killed while watching an Independence Day fireworks display with his father just before midnight on the city’s west side.

According to Chicago police, the intended target was Brown’s father, Antonio Brown, described as a “ranking gang member” with 45 previous arrests.

A police spokesman said Mr Brown was not co-operating with investigators working on the murder.

Chicago has one of the worst records of gun crime in the US. There were 1,340 shooting victims in the city from the start of the year to July 6th, compared with 2,589 for the whole of 2014, according to statistics compiled by the Chicago Tribune newspaper.

More than 200 people were killed in the first half of the year, more than 20 per cent higher than during the same period in 2014.

Last year’s Independent Day weekend was worse for gun crime: 82 people were shot in an 84-hour period, 16 of them fatally.