CHICAGO, July 7 (UPI) -- Over 80 people were victims of gun violence in Chicago over Fourth of July weekend, leaving 14 dead and police under heavy scrutiny.
The Chicago Police Department was directly involved in at least six of the shooting incidents, killing two people officials say were armed.
On Saturday, while responding to 911 calls reporting shots fired, police pursued 16-year-old Warren Robinson, who, according to police reports, "turned and pointed a weapon in the direction of the pursing officers. Fearing for their lives and the lives of their partners, officers discharged their weapons."
Robinson's family disputed this description, saying witnesses told them they saw Robinson raising his hands in surrender when police opened fire.
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"He didn't have a gun on him," Robinson's mother, Georgina Utendahl, told ABC Chicago. "I have witnesses who saw him running from other people and police shot him."
"The police killed him. Why they killed him, I don't know. We want answers."
The other fatal police shooting occurred Friday when officers noticed a man with a suspicious object in his waistband drinking on a porch. Police attempted to question the man, but he fled, at one point aiming "a large revolver at the officer." Police opened fire killing the man.
As the weekend continued, a violent grocery list of accidents, suspected gang activity and murder marred Chicagoans' Fourth of July weekends.
A 24-year-old died of multiple gunshot wounds in the middle of a South Side block. An unknown 44-year-old woman was shot and killed as she leaned on her car. A 23-year-old man was shot to death sitting a friend's front porch. A 21-year-old was shot in the head while sitting in a car with a teenage friend.
In addition to fatalities, many more were hurt by incidents caused by everything from spurned lovers to falling bullets.
"With these kind of numbers in Chicago, from the White House on down to the city there should be a response: What do we do? How do we stop this?" posed Father Michael Pfleger, of Chicago's South Side St. Sabina Catholic Church.
"We're celebrating independence, but we feel like we're in prison. It's unacceptable. We wouldn't accept it in Iraq, we shouldn't accept it in Chicago."
Thus far in 2014 over 1,100 people have been shot in Chicago.
