CHICAGO (AP) — Two people were killed and at least 30 others wounded in mass shootings
overnight in three states, authorities said Saturday, stoking concerns that a spike in
U.S. gun violence could continue into summer as coronavirus restrictions ease and more
people are free to socialize.
The attacks took place late Friday or early Saturday in the Texas capital of Austin,
Chicago and Savannah, Georgia.
In Austin, authorities said they arrested one of two male suspects and were searching for
the other after a shooting early Saturday on a crowded pedestrian-only street packed with
bars and restaurants. Fourteen people were wounded, including two critically, in the
gunfire, which the city’s interim police chief said is believed to have started as a
dispute between two parties.
No arrests were reported by late Saturday in the two other shootings.
In Chicago, a woman was killed and nine other people were wounded when two men opened fire
on a group standing on a sidewalk in the Chatham neighborhood on the city’s South Side.
The shooters also got away and hadn’t been identified by mid-afternoon Saturday.
In the south Georgia city of Savannah, police said one man was killed and seven other
people were wounded in a mass shooting Friday evening, police said. Two of the wounded are
children — an 18-month-old and a 13-year-old.
Savannah’s police chief, Roy Minter, Jr., said the shooting may be linked to an ongoing
dispute between two groups, citing reports of gunshots being fired at the same apartment
complex earlier in the week.
“It’s very disturbing what we’re seeing across the country and the level of gun
violence that we’re seeing across the country,” he told reporters Saturday. “It’s
disturbing and it’s senseless.”
The attacks come amid an easing of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in much of the
country, including Chicago, which lifted many of its remaining safeguards on Friday. Many
hoped that a spike in U.S. shootings and homicides last year was an aberration perhaps
caused by pandemic-related stress amid a rise in gun ownership and debate over policing.
But those rates are still higher than they were in pre-pandemic times, including in cities
that refused to slash police spending following the death of George Floyd and those that
made modest cuts.
“There was a hope this might simply be a statistical blip that would start to come down,
” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum. “That
hasn’t happened. And that’s what really makes chiefs worry that we may be entering a new
period where we will see a reversal of 20 years of declines in these crimes.”
Tracking ups and downs in crime is always complicated, but violent crime commonly
increases in the summer months. Weekend evenings and early-morning hours also are common
windows for shootings.
Many types of crime did decline in 2020 and have stayed lower this year, suggesting the
pandemic and the activism and unrest spurred by the reaction to Floyd’s death didn’t
lead to an overall spike in crime.
According to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern
University, only three mass shootings occurred at public places — the lowest total for
that category in a decade — out of 19 total mass shootings in 2020.
The database tracks all mass killings including shootings, defined as four or more people
dead not including the perpetrator.
According to that definition, there have been 17 mass killings, 16 of those shootings,
already this year, said James Alan Fox, a criminologist and professor at Northeastern
大学。
枪支暴力档案，监控媒体和警方报告以追踪枪支暴力，
将大规模枪击定义为涉及四个或更多人被枪杀的事件，无论
他们是否死了。总体而言，根据其数据库，有超过 8,700 人死于
今年美国的枪支暴力事件。
GVA 还发现，大规模枪击事件在 2020 年飙升至约 600 起，高于
在过去六年中的任何一年中，它都会跟踪统计数据。根据今年的
算起来，到目前为止，美国至少发生了 267 起大规模枪击事件，其中包括
最近三个晚上周五到周六。
“这令人担忧，”福克斯说。“我们有一群人开始走出去
公开的;当众。我们有很多分歧。我们有更多的枪支和温暖的天气。它是
潜在的致命混合物。”
___
这个故事已在第 13 段中更正，即公开发生三起大规模枪击事件
根据数据库跟踪器的数据，2020 年的年度总数是十年来最低的。
overnight in three states, authorities said Saturday, stoking concerns that a spike in
U.S. gun violence could continue into summer as coronavirus restrictions ease and more
people are free to socialize.
The attacks took place late Friday or early Saturday in the Texas capital of Austin,
Chicago and Savannah, Georgia.
In Austin, authorities said they arrested one of two male suspects and were searching for
the other after a shooting early Saturday on a crowded pedestrian-only street packed with
bars and restaurants. Fourteen people were wounded, including two critically, in the
gunfire, which the city’s interim police chief said is believed to have started as a
dispute between two parties.
No arrests were reported by late Saturday in the two other shootings.
In Chicago, a woman was killed and nine other people were wounded when two men opened fire
on a group standing on a sidewalk in the Chatham neighborhood on the city’s South Side.
The shooters also got away and hadn’t been identified by mid-afternoon Saturday.
In the south Georgia city of Savannah, police said one man was killed and seven other
people were wounded in a mass shooting Friday evening, police said. Two of the wounded are
children — an 18-month-old and a 13-year-old.
Savannah’s police chief, Roy Minter, Jr., said the shooting may be linked to an ongoing
dispute between two groups, citing reports of gunshots being fired at the same apartment
complex earlier in the week.
“It’s very disturbing what we’re seeing across the country and the level of gun
violence that we’re seeing across the country,” he told reporters Saturday. “It’s
disturbing and it’s senseless.”
The attacks come amid an easing of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in much of the
country, including Chicago, which lifted many of its remaining safeguards on Friday. Many
hoped that a spike in U.S. shootings and homicides last year was an aberration perhaps
caused by pandemic-related stress amid a rise in gun ownership and debate over policing.
But those rates are still higher than they were in pre-pandemic times, including in cities
that refused to slash police spending following the death of George Floyd and those that
made modest cuts.
“There was a hope this might simply be a statistical blip that would start to come down,
” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum. “That
hasn’t happened. And that’s what really makes chiefs worry that we may be entering a new
period where we will see a reversal of 20 years of declines in these crimes.”
Tracking ups and downs in crime is always complicated, but violent crime commonly
increases in the summer months. Weekend evenings and early-morning hours also are common
windows for shootings.
Many types of crime did decline in 2020 and have stayed lower this year, suggesting the
pandemic and the activism and unrest spurred by the reaction to Floyd’s death didn’t
lead to an overall spike in crime.
According to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern
University, only three mass shootings occurred at public places — the lowest total for
that category in a decade — out of 19 total mass shootings in 2020.
The database tracks all mass killings including shootings, defined as four or more people
dead not including the perpetrator.
According to that definition, there have been 17 mass killings, 16 of those shootings,
already this year, said James Alan Fox, a criminologist and professor at Northeastern
大学。
枪支暴力档案，监控媒体和警方报告以追踪枪支暴力，
将大规模枪击定义为涉及四个或更多人被枪杀的事件，无论
他们是否死了。总体而言，根据其数据库，有超过 8,700 人死于
今年美国的枪支暴力事件。
GVA 还发现，大规模枪击事件在 2020 年飙升至约 600 起，高于
在过去六年中的任何一年中，它都会跟踪统计数据。根据今年的
算起来，到目前为止，美国至少发生了 267 起大规模枪击事件，其中包括
最近三个晚上周五到周六。
“这令人担忧，”福克斯说。“我们有一群人开始走出去
公开的;当众。我们有很多分歧。我们有更多的枪支和温暖的天气。它是
潜在的致命混合物。”
___
这个故事已在第 13 段中更正，即公开发生三起大规模枪击事件
根据数据库跟踪器的数据，2020 年的年度总数是十年来最低的。