Chicago Shootings Continue Despite Coronavirus Stay-Home Order

CHICAGO — Chicago's shooting problem rages on despite a pandemic-inspired stay-at-home order to slow the spread of the new coronavirus.

On Tuesday, 14 people were shot and wounded, and seven people were shot and killed, including a 5-year-old girl, police said.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot ordered the city's top cop to "spare no expense or resource" to bring "individual trigger pullers who slaughtered people in a totally heinous way" — firing into crowds of people — to justice.

"This level of violence is never acceptable. Never, ever," she said. "Shooting into crowds without any regard to consequence is the most heinous form of cowardice."

On Monday, Lightfoot revealed public health statistics that show black Chicagoans living in the city's poorest ZIP codes with lacking health care services are being disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. As of Saturday, more than 70 percent of the city's coronavirus deaths were among African Americans.

"These same communities continue to be plagued by gun violence,"Lightfoot said Wednesday. "I'm here to say: Enough, enough, enough."

Chicago's shooting epidemic during the coronavirus crisis places additional burdens on hospitals already stretched to near a breaking point.

"We cannot allow this to happen, and we will not allow this to happen," Lightfoot said. She called on Chicagoans who might know the identity of "cowardly" shooters to speak up during the public health crisis.

"People know who the shooters are. You know who you are," Lightfoot said. "These cowards cannot be given any shelter in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. Our precious health resources need to be need to be used to treat COVID patients and those who need acute care."