RECENT CITY SHOOTINGSJuly 28: 262 W. 38th St. — A 22-year-old is shot in the kneeJuly 29: 4217 Ohls Ave. — A 34-year-old is shot in the hipAug. 2: 4900 Brainerd Road — A 25-year-old is shot in the legAug. 3: 1403 Tunnel Blvd. — A 26-year-old is shot twice in the legAug. 4: 3211 Harrison Pike — Two men, 18 and 20, are shot in the arm and footAug. 5: 1000 N. Orchard Knob — A 19-year-old is shot in the armAug. 6: 1703 E. 14th St. — Three males, 16, 18 and 19, are shot during a drive-bySource: Chattanooga Police Department2014 CITY GUN VIOLENCE*Shootings: 72Firearms-related homicides: 14* To dateSource: Times Free Press records
Eight people have been shot in Chattanooga during the past five days.
A 16-year-old was shot in the abdomen. A 26-year-old was shot in the leg. Arms, feet, ankles — the rash of gunshot wounds is especially conspicuous because it follows two weeks of calm, when no one was shot at all in the Scenic City.
But this increase in violence was not unexpected. In fact, for weeks now, police have been planning to put extra officers on the streets this weekend, hoping to deter an anticipated spike in violence as youths head back to school and people who haven’t seen each other much all summer are suddenly rubbing shoulders again.
“We wanted to do it this weekend because we anticipated that the return to school would see a spike in violence,” Police Chief Fred Fletcher said Wednesday. “What we regret is it looks like we may have missed the target by a week.”