Fourth of July violence kills at least 33 across the United States

U.S. shootings and other violence have left dozens of people dead during Independence Day events, marking one of the nation’s deadliest times of the year.  U.S. media on Saturday cited authorities as saying the extended 4th of July weekend had left at least 33 people dead.

In Chicago, 11 people were killed and 55 others wounded, prompting the Mayor to declare “a state of grief.”  The shooting incidents and other violence during the holiday “left our city in a state of grief,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said.

“We are devastated by the recent violence that has left our city in a state of grief and we extend our heartfelt condolences to the families and communities impacted by these recent events,” Johnson said.

Nearly 100 people have been shot around the July 4th holiday due to gun violence as the nation marks the independence day.

Shortly after midnight Friday, 8 people were wounded in Chicago’s Little Italy neighborhood.

Another shooting after about 90 minutes in the city’s Austin neighborhood injured six.

A mass shooting on Thursday killed two women and an 8-year-old boy, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

At Lake Michigan beach in Chicago, frequent violent incidents prompted officials to close it early each night through the holiday weekend as a precaution.  The 31st Street Beach has been the scene of recent stabbings and shootings.

In California, two people were killed and three others injured at Huntington Beach less than two hours after a fireworks show ended, police said. Authorities arrested a suspect after responding to reports of an assault with a deadly weapon Thursday night.

In Niles, northeastern Ohio, police said a 15-year-old male was in custody after a 23-year-old man was fatally shot Thursday night at a Fourth of July party at a residence.

Also, a 10-year-old girl was fatally shot in a Cleveland neighborhood, police said.

In Philadelphia on Thursday night, a 19-year-old male was killed and six others were wounded in a drive-by shooting.

In the Boston area, 3 shooting incidents occurred following the city’s Fourth of July celebrations, leaving one man dead.

In another shooting, a 17-year-old male suffered a stomach wound on Thursday night in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

A woman said to be on her way to a Fourth of July party was found shot dead in her car early Friday in Connecticut.

Six males in Albany, New York, were wounded in a mass shooting at a large gathering at a home around 12:15 a.m. Friday.

In another shooting early Friday outside a nightclub in Tampa, 4 people were wounded after an altercation broke out between them.

In Queens, New York, an 8-year-old boy was fatally stabbed in an apartment in what police described as a domestic dispute. A 20-year-old man who held a knife to his 43-year-old father’s throat was shot dead by police.

A shooting in High Point, North Carolina, left one person dead. Police said the victim was identified as Keith S. Lynch, 32, of High Point.

Shootings at two St. Louis-area Fourth of July gatherings left two men dead and five others injured, two in critical condition, police said.

In West Virginia, Charles Speer, 42, of Kermit, died early Friday after being shot multiple times following a physical altercation at the home of another man, state police said.

And a road-rage incident led to the fatal shooting of a 36-year-old man in Taneytown, Maryland, according to the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office.

Earlier Thursday, a police officer serving a warrant in Cleveland and an armed person making threats in Yellowstone National Park were among those killed in other shootings.

Historically, the 4th of July, America’s Independence Day, is one of the nation’s deadliest days of the year.

“What to the slave is the Fourth of July," asked Frederick Douglass in his scathing speech at the US Independence Day function on July 5, 1852.  These words of a former slave turned author and orator who spearheaded a popular movement to abolish slavery in the U.S. ring true even 171 years on.

In 2023, multiple shootings around the holiday left more than a dozen people dead and over 60 wounded.

In 2022, seven people died in a mass shooting at a 4th of July parade near Chicago.