After another violent weekend that claimed two lives and left nearly two dozen injured, new numbers suggest Chicago Police are getting the upper hand on the city's most violent crimes.
"Through a close partnership with the community and our comprehensive policing strategy there have been significant drops in murders, shootings and overall crime this year," Supt. Garry McCarthy said, "but it's progress and not victory because one shooting or murder is unacceptable."
Numbers released Monday by police indicate a 25 percent drop in shootings and a 14 percent drop in overall crime in the first half of this year compared to the first six months of last year. Murders are down too, police say, by 29 percent.
Here's how the shootings break down. Police say the city saw 843 shootings and 184 murders between Jan. 1 and June 30 of this year. That compares to 1,117 shootings and 260 murders during that period in 2012.
It's a tough pill to swallow for the family of a mother and her toddler son who were shot and injured Sunday at an Englewood park.
Leslie Freeman and her son, Demonte, were wounded while at a park near 73rd and Wood just before 6 p.m. Family members say a red van pulled up and someone rolled down the window and opened fire. Freeman was shot in the arm and needed surgery. Demonte was shot in the leg.
"You are outside with your child in the park and you can't even sit down for a minute without somebody coming by to open fire for no reason at all," neighbor Pamela Burrell said.
"They need to do something about all this crime," Burrell said. "What have little kids done to you?"
Supt. Garry McCarthy agrees the fight isn't over.
"While to date we've had fewer shootings than in recent years and fewer murders than any year since 1965," he said, "there's more work to be done and we won't rest until everyone in Chicago enjoys the same sense of safety.”
No one is in custody for the shooting that injured Freeman and Demonte.
