THE SUV CAME FOR JUNETEENTH. PRITZKER CAME FOR TRUMP.

It is Friday night in Chicago. Again. And the chalk still won’t wash off 111th Street.

Byline:June 26, 2026 | Staff Writer

The music stopped at 11:03 p.m.

Not because DJ Killa Cam cut it. Because bullets did.

Three blocks away, on Cottage Grove, “Before I Let Go” was still playing. Kids were on shoulders. Doris, 62, had three paper plates balanced on her arm. Potato salad, ribs, and a cup of red Kool-Aid.

Then the red SUV turned onto West 111th Street.

Two men. No masks. No words.

Marcus Reed, 34, was holding his son’s hand.

“I heard the engine. Then I heard the first pop,” Reed said. “I threw myself over my boy.”

His 7-year-old didn’t get hit. Twelve other people did.

In 20 seconds, a Juneteenth cookout became a crime scene.

That was Friday.

By Sunday night, the city had a new scoreboard:7 dead, 38 wounded. Police logged24 separate shooting incidentsin 48 hours.

And Governor JB Pritzker had a new post.

Not about the dead. About a reflecting pool.

“This is the president that thought that he could hire an unqualified company to paint the reflecting pool, and then thought that it would just be free of algae.”
— Gov. JB Pritzker, Tuesday press conference

Algae on Tuesday. Blood on Friday.

The Timeline They Want You to Forget

Friday, 11:03 p.m.Princeton Park. The SUV. Twelve people hit. A 26-year-old will not see Sunday. A 32-year-old woman took two bullets to the back. A 17-year-old boy will limp if he walks again.

Friday, 11:47 p.m.West Pullman. Drive-by. A 29-year-old man dead. An elderly woman caught in the crossfire.

Saturday, 6:15 p.m.Bridgeport. A 37-year-old man shot in the neck. Dead on the sidewalk.

Saturday night.An 18-year-old shot in the armpit. Dead.

Sunday morning.A 21-year-old shot in the chest. Dead at St. Bernard.

Saturday, 11:10 p.m.Bronzeville. Another car. Another crowd. Seven more wounded on South State Street.

The Chicago Sun-Times counted 10 more shot in a single 24-hour stretch. CBS News Chicago confirmed eight killed and dozens hurt over the holiday weekend.

Mariah Johnson, 32, was number 7.

She is a nursing assistant at Stroger Hospital. She was at that cookout.

“I heard the car before I saw it. Then I was on the ground. My sister thought I was dead.”
— Mariah Johnson, from her ICU bed at Stroger

Two bullets in her back. She missed her daughter’s eighth grade graduation. Her daughter came to the hospital instead.

The Letter Pritzker Would Not Answer

While Johnson was in surgery, President Donald Trump posted to Truth Social.

“Lots of Killing going on in Chicago…Why isn’t Governor Pritzker calling me for help? I could make Chicago a safe City in ONE MONTH.”
— President Donald J. Trump, June 22, 2026

On June 23, the White House made it official. A letter went to Pritzker’s office. It offered a 90-day federal violent crime task force. More ATF agents. The same deployment the White House says cut violent crime to “record lows” in Washington, D.C., Memphis, and New Orleans.

Pritzker answered on June 24. The Associated Press received the letter.

“The State of Illinois will not be listening to this President about promises that he makes or that he has any idea how to protect us. We also are tough on crime.”
— Governor JB Pritzker, to The Associated Press, June 24, 2026

Tough on crime.

Chicago’s 2026 murder count hit198this week. Same time last year:182. That is a 9 percent increase, according to CPD CompStat.

New York City is down 5.9 percent in all crimes. Homicides there are down 24 percent, NYPD data shows.

The Supermajority’s Experiment

For three years, the Democratic supermajority in Springfield has rewritten the criminal code. The SAFE-T Act. No cash bail. Shorter sentences.

Illinois Republicans call it surrender.

At a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this month titled “Blue City Chaos and Tragedy,” Illinois GOP members went after Pritzker by name.

“The Governor calls federal help a power grab while mothers bury sons,” one Illinois Republican told the committee. “That’s not public safety. That’s politics.”

Pritzker calls it progress.

“One violent crime is too many and we have more work to do, but we have made important progress on safety that Trump is now jeopardizing.”
— Gov. JB Pritzker, Aug. 27, 2025

Progress.

Doris went home Friday night with potato salad and someone else’s blood on her sandal.

Election Year Math

Mayor Brandon Johnson signed the “Protecting Chicago Initiative” on Wednesday. It orders city departments not to cooperate with federal troops.

“Trump has worked overtime to defund the agencies and programmes that actually build safer communities.”
— Mayor Brandon Johnson, June 25, 2026

Pritzker told NBC Chicago he would “fight troop deployments in court.” He said Trump wants to “interrupt our ability to have a fair and free election” in 2026.

An election is 16 months away.

The next weekend is 8 hours away.

Tio Hardiman runs Violence Interrupters. His crews say they stopped 30 shootings this year. He stood on 111th Street Tuesday.

“You can still see where the grill was. Plates were still on the ground. These folks were celebrating freedom. Now they are planning funerals.”
— Tio Hardiman, Violence Interrupters

The Numbers He Won’t Say

Illinois budgeted $183 million for violence prevention in 2026. As of June 1, the state had spent $61 million, according to the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority.

CPD data shows robberies down 26 percent this year. Burglaries down 12 percent.

The bullets are up.

Criminologist Christopher Herrmann, a former NYPD analyst, said summer brings the surge. “We see more people spending more time outdoors in the summer, and when there’s large groups, typically with alcohol involved, then you typically end up with some kind of violence,” Herrmann toldThe Independent. “And sometimes that leads to shootings, and then shootings can also lead to homicides.”

It Is Friday Again

The sun sets tonight at 8:29 p.m. The forecast is 84 degrees. The parks will fill. The grills will light.

CPD canceled all days off through July 6. An internal memo dated June 23 says so.

UChicago Medicine confirmed it activated its mass casualty protocol for the holiday weekend.

The Fourth of July is eight days away.

On 111th and Princeton, the confetti is gone. The shell casings are gone.

The chalk outline is not.

It is Friday in Chicago. Again.

And the only question left is how many names get added before Monday.

Official Sources Cited:

• Chicago Police Department CompStat data, week ending June 21, 2026

• The Associated Press, “7 killed and dozens injured following series of weekend shootings in Chicago,” updated June 21, 2026

• CBS News Chicago, Juneteenth weekend coverage, June 22, 2026

• Truth Social posts by President Donald J. Trump, June 22 and June 23, 2026

• Letter from The White House to Office of Governor JB Pritzker, June 23, 2026, obtained via public records request

• Letter from Office of Governor JB Pritzker to The White House, June 24, 2026, provided to The Associated Press

• Statement from Mayor Brandon Johnson, “Protecting Chicago Initiative” executive order, June 25, 2026

• Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, FY2026 violence prevention grant disbursement report, June 1, 2026

• U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing “Blue City Chaos and Tragedy,” June 2026

• The Independentinterview with Christopher Herrmann, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, June 2026

• Chicago Sun-Times shooting database, June 20-22, 2026