Top cop fears America will be hit with a summer of gun violence after FOUR shootings over 23 hours leave FIVE dead and at least 30 injured across nation
Top cops say they fear that the US could be hit by a horrific summer of mass shootings - with four states alone witnessing gun atrocities within the last 24 hours.
Savannah Police Chief Roy Minter Jr and Chuck Wexler, from the Police Executive Research Forum, said a recent explosion in the number of shootings appears to be a long term trend, rather than a blip.
Minter spoke after a man was killed and seven were injured in a mass drive-by shooting in the Georgia city on Friday night. The victim has since been named as Arthur Milton, 20. Seven others were injured.
He said: 'It's very disturbing what we're seeing across the country and the level of gun violence that we're seeing across the country.
'It's disturbing and it's senseless.'
Minter made the remarks as three men were also killed in a shooting at a gas station in Cleveland, Ohio, in the early hours of Saturday, with two of the victims aged 40, and the third aged 36. One of the victims was named as Rahim Head by his grief-stricken mom Brenda Cole.
Speaking outside the gas station in the city's Buckhead area where her son died, Cole said her son had seven kids.
She answered 'I don't know,' through tears when asked if she knew more about what had led to the shooting. Three other women were injured, with cops yet to share further information on that shooting.
A woman was killed and nine injured in a shooting in Chicago's Chatham neighborhood, with 14 also shot and injured in downtown Austin, with both shootings also happening in the early hours of Saturday.
Commenting on the wider trend, Wexler said: 'There was a hope this might simply be a statistical blip that would start to come down.
Two gunmen opened fire in Austin, pictured, on Saturday morning, injuring two. Experts say they fear a summer of mass shootings lies ahead
A woman was also shot dead in Chicago on Saturday, with nine others injured in the same gun attack, the aftermath of which is pictured
Meanwhile, a man was killed and seven people were injured after gunfire broke out in Savannah, Georgia, in the early hours of Saturday
Rahim Head, a 36 year-old father of seven, was one of three men killed at a shooting at a gas station in Cleveland, Ohio, in the early hours of Saturday
The Cleveland shooting happened at this gas station in the city's Buckhead neighborhood
'That hasn't happened. And that's what really makes chiefs worry that we may be entering a new period where we will see a reversal of 20 years of declines in these crimes.'
Two of those shot in Austin remain critically ill, with one of two men wanted over the shooting arrested on Saturday evening. No information about that man has been released.
The Chicago attack also involved two shooters, both of them men, who escaped on foot afterwards, and who have not been identified.
Those injured in Savannah include an 18 month-old toddler and 13 year-old, with Minter saying gunfire broke out following a dispute between two families at an apartment complex earlier this week. No information on arrests has been shared.
Police unions say repeated calls to defund - or even abolish - their departments in the wake of George Floyd's murder and other instances of brutality against black Americans have led to mass-resignations, and caused staff shortages.
Savannah Police Chief Roy Minter Jr, pictured speaking at a press conference on Saturday, says he fears that a summer of bloody violence lies ahead
The attacks come amid an easing of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in much of the country, including Chicago, which lifted many of its remaining safeguards on Friday.
Many hoped that a spike in U.S. shootings and homicides last year was an aberration perhaps caused by pandemic-related stress amid a rise in gun ownership and debate over policing.
But those rates are still higher than they were in pre-pandemic times.
Tracking ups and downs in crime is always complicated, but violent crime commonly increases in the summer months. Weekend evenings and early-morning hours also are common windows for shootings.
According to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University, only three mass shootings occurred at public places - the lowest total for that category in a decade - out of 19 total mass shootings in 2020.
The database tracks all mass killings including shootings, defined as four or more people dead not including the perpetrator.
According to that definition, there have been 17 mass killings, 16 of those shootings, already this year, said James Alan Fox, a criminologist and professor at Northeastern University.
'It´s worrisome,' Fox said. 'We have a blend of people beginning to get out and about in public. We have lots of divisiveness. And we have more guns and warm weather. It´s a potentially deadly mix.'
The Gun Violence Archive, which monitors media and police reports to track gun violence, defines mass shootings as those involving four or more people who were shot, regardless of whether they died. Overall, according to its database, more than 8,700 people have died of gun violence in the U.S. this year.
The GVA also found that mass shootings spiked in 2020 to about 600, which was higher than in any of the previous six years it tracked the statistic. According to this year's count, there have been at least 267 mass shootings in the U.S. so far, including the latest three overnight Friday into Saturday.
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