Violence in Texas, Georgia and Illinois brings number of US mass shootings to 267 so far this year
As the nation marks the fifth anniversary of the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando, Florida, on Saturday, it has a staggering and grim new statistic to contend with for 2021.
So far this year, we have suffered 267 mass shootings. That’s the new tally after four incidents occurred across the country between Friday afternoon and early Saturday morning, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
Gunmen killed at least two people and injured at least 34 more in Austin, Texas; Dallas; Savannah, Georgia; and Chicago.
“We are saddened that Austin has joined the far too lengthy list of communities that have experienced mass shootings,” Dewitt Peart, president and CEO of the Downtown Austin Alliance in Texas, said in a statement. “Our nation has endured heartbreak time and time again resulting from the acts of deranged individuals intent on killing and harming others. This senseless violence must end.”
On June 12, 2016, a gunman attacked the nightclub in Orlando, killing 49 people and upending countless lives.
Today, as four more cities struggle in the wake of large-scale gun violence, Orlando still feels the club’s absence, which is particularly painful for LGBTQ residents and LGBTQ people of color. “People are still healing,” says Joél Junior Morales, director of operations at the LGBT+ Center.
Here is a look at the four most recent incidents.
Austin, Texas
At least 13 people were injured early Saturday morning in a shooting in downtown Austin, Texas, officials said.
Two were in critical condition, Austin Interim Chief of Police Joseph Chacon said at a news briefing Saturday.
Six people were taken to a hospital by the Austin Police Department, and the Austin-Travis County EMS brought in four others for medical treatment, Chacon said. Three other victims went to the hospital on their own.
Savannah, Georgia
A shooting in the Fred Wessels Homes neighborhood in Savannah, Georgia, on Friday night killed one person and injured at least seven others, including a 2-year-old and a 13-year-old, police said.
In a news conference Saturday, Savannah Police Chief Roy Minter revised the number of victims down to eight total and clarified that the victims’ ages ranged from 18 months to 33 years old. Initial reports said nine people were shot — one fatally — and that the youngest victim was 2 years old.
Dallas
Dallas police are investigating a shooting that injured five people Friday, including a 4-year-old girl.
Around 4:45 p.m., police responded to reports of shooting among two groups of people “involved in a disturbance regarding an unknown matter,” police said in a website post. The child was taken to Children’s Medical Center and is in stable condition, police said.
The four adult victims, all women, were taken to local hospitals and had injuries that were not life-threatening, police said.
Chicago
Police were looking for two gunmen in a shooting in Chicago early Saturday that sent 10 people to the hospital, where one woman died.
People were standing on a sidewalk in the city’s South Side when two men approached and opened fire, police said.
