The youngest victim killed in the Windy City was 16 years old

Jun 18, 2013 08:38 GMT  ·  By

Chicago has registered an increase in gun violence over the weekend, with 46 people getting shot, seven of whom have died.

The youngest victim was a 16-year-old boy who got fatally shot by a stray bullet while the gunman was riding a bike on the South Side.

“There's going to be good days, and there's going to be bad days, which is why we've been calling this progress, not victory,” Chicago police spokesman Adam Collins tells the Chicago Tribune.

Collins adds that the 2013 gun homicide stats are an improvement from those in recent years.

“While we’ve had fewer murders to date this year than any year since the mid-1960s, there’s more work to be done and we won’t rest until everyone in Chicago enjoys the same sense of safety,” Collins clarifies.

13 people were injured in shootings on Friday and Saturday morning and noon. 33 more were shot starting Saturday afternoon and up to Sunday evening.

One of them, 24-year-old Anton Johnson was shot by police officers on Sunday morning. WGN reported that Johnson got out of a vehicle and started running when he spotted police officers. Deputies noticed that he was carrying a weapon.

“He fell. [Officers] could see as he was running that he had a gun in his belt in his back.

“As he fell to the ground, he was crawling and reaching for the gun at the same time. At that point the officers opened fire,” Fraternal Order of Police spokesperson Pat Camden notes.

His mother, Stacy Liberty argues that the police gave him no verbal warning and did not shoot to stop, but injure him.

“They didn’t even give him time to stop. [...] No call or anything. They just shot my son in the back,” she says.