Who’d a thunk we’d see the day when one of the nations’ biggest press outlets would tout the stand on your head breaking news headline — “Chicago’s official weekend shooting tally: zero”
That’s exactly what the headline read from today’s edition of the long running periodical, the Chicago Tribune.
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Here’s the story they ran with the strangely ominous headline.
The official Chicago police tally of shootings last weekend was a rare number: zero.
The streak started after a 41-year-old man was shot at 8:20 p.m. Friday in the Austin community and was still going as of midday Monday, according to a police spokesman.
That streak nearly came to an end late Sunday when a crime victim pulled out a gun while trying to defend himself during an attempted robbery on the West Side, but he ended up wounding himself in the foot, authorities said. Police typically don’t count self-inflicted gunshot victims as part of their official shooting tally.
The rare stretch without any gun violence came as the Chicago area saw light snow Saturday night and temperatures that reached highs in the 20s throughout the weekend, according to the National Weather Service. No shootings were reported in Chicago early Monday afternoon as heavy snow fell.
The peaceful weekend followed the pattern for 2014 so far — no doubt thanks in large part to one of the harshest winters in Chicago history. Through Feb. 9, shootings fell to 112, down 39 percent from a year earlier, according to department figures. Homicides fell 36 percent to 28 over the same period, the statistics show.
The victim of the attempted holdup, a 16-year-old boy, was approached about 11:45 p.m. Sunday by at least one robber in the 500 block of North Monticello Avenue in the East Garfield Park neighborhood, according to Chicago police. The victim pulled out a gun, but he accidentally shot himself in the foot, police said.
He was taken in good condition to Norwegian-American Hospital.
It’s safe to say the days of of reporting when someone DID get shot are long gone..