Violent holiday weekend sees mass shootings in Michigan, Illinois and Kentucky

CHICAGO (AP) — A shooting at a block party in Detroit left two people dead and more than a dozen wounded, capping a violent holiday weekend in the U.S. that also saw mass shootings in Kentucky and Chicago.

More than 100 people were shot in Chicago, 19 of them fatally, over the long Independence Day weekend, when there is often a spike in violence . One mass shooting Thursday in a neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, left two women and an 8-year-old boy dead. Two other children were also critically injured.

“We cannot take our eyes off the ball,” Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling said at a Monday news conference. “We cannot stop thinking about the people who have been victimized by this crime.”

City officials announced plans for an emergency resource center to open Monday evening for people struggling with trauma, while Mayor Brandon Johnson blamed the pervasive violence on years of disinvestment and poverty, particularly in the city's Black neighborhoods. Johnson, who took office last year, said Chicago has not received enough federal resources for victims and that he recently renewed a request for help.

The four-day weekend in Chicago saw a spike in violence compared with the same time period last year when 11 people were killed and more than 60 wounded.

“We are losing a piece of the soul of Chicago,” Johnson said at the news conference. “We will not let criminal activity ruin and harm our city.”

In Detroit, two people were fatally shot and at least 19 were injured at a block party on the city's east side early Sunday, according to authorities. Detroit police planned a news conference Monday to announce new safety strategies for block parties.

Shootings during the holiday weekend also took place in California and Kentucky , where police say four people were killed and three others wounded in an early morning shooting during a party at a home. The shooting suspect later died after fleeing the home in Florence, Kentucky, and driving into a ditch during a police chase, authorities said. Florence is a city of about 36,000 people located about 12 miles (19 kilometers) south of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Callahan reported from Indianapolis.

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