For the average Chattanoogan, the chance of being shot or killed in the city is practically nil.
For the estimated 1,300 gang members in the city, the likelihood is much higher.
“Chattanooga is pretty safe – if you’re not out at 3 in the morning selling crack, or breaking into cars, or shooting at other people,” Lt. Glenn Scruggs, who heads the Chattanooga Police Department’s violent crime unit, told Times Free Press reporter Shelly Bradbury that he often explains to people.
Indeed, 58 percent of the non-fatal shootings in the city from 2013 to 2016 have involved gang members, and 50 percent of the fatal shootings involved gang members.
If fatal and non-fatal shootings involving domestic disputes were to be added to the numbers involving gang members, the chances of such a shooting involving a random Chattanoogan would drop even further.