(CHICAGO) — More than 70 people were shot, 13 fatally, in Chicago over the holiday weekend, including a father of four who was gunned down at a large family Father’s Day park gathering, according to police.

The violence over the Father’s Day and Juneteenth holidays also left a number of teenagers injured, including a 14-year-old boy who died after being shot multiple times on a street in the Garfield Park neighborhood on the city’s West Side, according to a review by ABC News of weekend incident reports from the Chicago Police Department.

Police officials said at least 75 people were shot across the city in 51 separate incidents that occurred between 6 p.m. on Friday and 11:59 p.m. on Monday.

“Every time I read and hear about another life that is lost because of violence, my heart breaks,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said at a news conference on Monday. “Fifteen-year-olds, 14-year-olds, you all know I’m raising children in Chicago. It hurts.”

The series of shootings came amid declines in both homicides and shootings this year in Chicago compared to 2022. Prior to the weekend, homicides in Chicago were down 7% from the 257 slayings that occurred in the first half of 2022, according to the Chicago Police Department’s crime statistics. Shooting incidents are also down 5% this year compared to this time last year, the crime data shows.

This weekend’s shootings marked one of the most violent holiday weekends this year in Chicago, surpassing Memorial Day weekend when 53 people were shot, 11 fatally, in 42 separate incidents across the city, according to police. At least 31 people were shot last weekend in Chicago, four fatally, in 26 separate incidents, police said.

Father’s Day park shooting

Among those killed this weekend was a 32-year-old father of four, identified as Brian Ross, who was shot to death along with another man during a large family Father’s Day gathering at Smith Park in the Roseland community. Ross’ relatives told ABC station WLS in Chicago that the gunshots were fired from a passing car, killing Ross and the 37-year-old victim, whose name was not immediately released.

“They literally stopped where they were at, opened fire on them, didn’t care about the kids being around or nothing. And, by the grace of God, no kids get hit,” Ross’ wife, Kandace Ross, said. “They didn’t care about nothing or nobody because there were kids out there. There were women out there, there were grandmas, anybody. They just came and just shot it up just so they can, I don’t know, brag about it.”

Cmdr. Tyrone Pendarvis of the Chicago Police Department said the shooting unfolded just before 8 p.m. and that in addition to the two men gunned down, three others were hit by gunfire and treated at a hospital.

“It’s unfortunate today that this occurred because it was a fine day and people just enjoying their family activity, but violence prevails in the city and it’s unfortunate that these five individuals were shot,” Pendarvis said at a news conference.

Car-to-car gunfire

One man was killed and three others were wounded in a shooting Monday in the Ashburn neighborhood on the city’s South Side, police said. The victims were riding in a car when gunmen in another vehicle headed in the opposite direction opened fire, police said. A 20-year-old man, whose name was not immediately released, was shot in the head and pronounced dead at the scene, according to police.

The three other victims, including a 16-year-old boy and a 19-year-old man, were struck by bullets and treated at the University of Chicago Medical Center, according to police. Four guns were recovered at the scene, but no arrests were announced.

Also on Monday, a 32-year-old man was pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital after being shot multiple times while driving through the West Garfield neighborhood on the city’s West Side at about 7:25 a.m., according to police. The circumstances of the shooting remained under investigation Tuesday and no arrests have been announced.

Fight prompts fatal shooting

Four men were shot, one fatally, in the Austin neighborhood early Sunday after a fight broke out and a fifth man fighting pulled and gun and opened fire, according to police. The shooting occurred just before 3 a.m. in the Austin neighborhood of the city’s West Side. The victim who died, a 31-year-old man, was shot multiple times and taken to Loyola University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. No arrests were announced.

Among others fatal shootings victims over the weekend were a 48-year-old man, who was discovered Saturday with a gunshot wound to the head in the Woodlawn section of the city’s South Side, and a 58-year-old man who was shot and pronounced dead at the scene also on the city’s South Side, police said.

A 32-year-old man was fatally shot just after 11 p.m. on Sunday in the vestibule of a fast-food restaurant in the West Pullman neighborhood of the city’s South Side when he got into a physical altercation with the unidentified man who shot him. No arrests have been announced.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Four people were killed and two others remain in critical condition after a fire caused by a lithium-ion battery broke out in an e-bike repair shop and tore through a New York City building overnight, authorities said.

Reports of smoke and fire coming from the Manhattan building, which has an e-bike repair shop on the ground floor and residential units above it, came in just after midnight Tuesday, New York City Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said.

Firefighters pulled six residents from the building in critical condition, though four have since died, Kavanagh said. One firefighter suffered minor injuries, authorities said.

“It is very clear that this was caused by lithium-ion batteries and e-bikes,” Kavanagh said at a press briefing Tuesday near a pile of charred and mangled rubber, bicycle frames and electrical components.

Information on the victims has not yet been released.

Following the fire, which occurred in lower Manhattan near Chinatown, the Red Cross said it was providing emergency housing to eight households — including 23 adults and two children.

The location — HQ E-Bike Repair — was known to the fire department, which had cited it for violations in 2021 and 2022, fire officials said.

HQ E-Bike Repair was cited for multiple fire code violations in August 2022, found guilty and fined $1,600, according to Chief Fire Marshal Daniel Flynn. The violations were related to the charging of and number of batteries at the location, he said.

The officials recently did surveillance at the property and found violations regarding the number of batteries, Flynn said.

Kavanagh stressed the danger associated with e-bike fires, which she described as more akin to an “explosion” than a “smoldering fire.”

“The sheer volume of fire is incredibly dangerous,” she said. “We’ve said this over and over — it can make it nearly impossible to get out in time.”

Including Tuesday’s incident, there have been 108 fires related to lithium-ion batteries this year in New York City, resulting in 13 fatalities, according to Kavanagh. By this time last year, the city had two fatalities from similar incidents, she said.

The mayor’s office recently enacted e-bike safety legislation that, among other measures, bans the resale of bikes or batteries and restricts the reconditioning of used batteries. Though some 65,000 e-bikes were purchased before the law took effect in New York.

“So even as we regulate them, we have to make sure we’re getting the word out about how dangerous these unregulated bikes are and the fact that they are here already in the city,” Kavanagh said.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.