上周末，美国至少有四个主要城市遭到大规模枪击事件的袭击，造成至少39人受伤，5人死亡，警方官员警告说，随着美国摆脱疫情，枪支暴力的激增是血腥夏天的前奏。
奥斯汀、克利夫兰、芝加哥和萨凡纳的警方都在调查周日的大规模枪击事件。这场枪击事件从周五晚上9点开始，持续了六个小时，一直延续到周六早上。
“我们在全国各地看到的情况以及我们在全国各地看到的枪支暴力水平非常令人不安。萨凡纳警察局局长小罗伊·明特在周末的新闻发布会上说，一人死亡，包括一名18个月大的婴儿和两名青少年在内的八人受伤。
周日早上，萨凡纳警方正在努力识别一名或多名嫌疑人，他们乘坐一辆深色轿车，在周五晚上9点左右对一群站在东萨凡纳居民区一所房子前的人发动了一连串的枪击。明特确认在伏击中丧生的20岁男子是萨凡纳的亚瑟·米尔顿。
杰西卡·莫斯通过路透社
奥斯汀一个繁忙的娱乐区发生枪击事件后，警察护送一名受害者
他说，枪击中受伤的两个成年人情况危急。婴儿和两个15岁和16岁的青少年受了没有生命危险的伤。
明顿说，调查人员从枪击现场收集了60枚弹壳，并补充说，三所房屋和几辆汽车被炮火损坏。
这位负责人说，目标住宅与周二被人用子弹扫射的住宅相同，那次枪击没有造成任何人受伤。
“我们认为这不是巧合，”明特说。
萨凡纳枪击案发生大约四个小时后，1999年的一条街上爆发了枪战奥斯汀市中心警方称，造成14人受伤，其中两人伤势严重。
临时警察局长约瑟夫·沙孔称，一名嫌疑犯已被逮捕，另一名正在追捕中。
通过美联社
萨凡纳警察局长罗伊·明特于2021年6月12日在佐治亚州萨凡纳举行新闻发布会。
沙孔说，大规模枪击事件发生在凌晨1点24分左右，似乎是由两个组织之间的纠纷引发的。他说大多数枪击受害者都是无辜的旁观者。
奥斯汀市长史蒂夫·阿德勒(Steve Adler)在推特上表示，尽管警方启动了多项暴力预防计划，旨在打击德克萨斯州首府最近增加的枪击事件，但仍发生了大规模伤亡枪击事件。
阿德勒说:“但这场危机需要各级政府做出更广泛、协调的回应。”。"有一点是清楚的——获得更多的枪支并不等于获得更大的公共安全."
据警方称，奥斯汀的大规模枪击事件后不久，芝加哥南区的人行道上发生了一起枪击事件，造成一名妇女死亡，九人受伤。
芝加哥警方官员表示，根据警察局的在线事件报告，调查人员正在搜索两名嫌疑人，他们走向聚集在芝加哥查塔姆街区商业区人行道上的人群，并在周六凌晨2点刚过时开枪。据报道，在枪击中受了非致命伤害的9名成年人的年龄从23岁到46岁不等。
库克县法医确认29岁的金菲·迈尔斯是在枪击中丧生的女子。
据美国广播公司新闻网(ABC News)对在线犯罪报告的审查，自周五以来，在芝加哥袭击中被枪杀的人是整个城市共有44人被枪杀的人之一，其中包括6人死亡。
追踪全国枪击事件的在线网站“枪支暴力档案”报告称，2021年发生了270起大规模枪击事件。该网站将大规模枪击事件定义为四人或四人以上被枪杀的单一事件，无论是否有人死亡。
警察执行研究论坛的执行主任查克·韦克斯勒告诉《the美联社随着新冠肺炎的限制继续解除，人们开始更多地互动，全国范围内看似持续不断的大规模枪击事件和激增的暴力犯罪让警察们准备迎接一个漫长而危险的夏天。
“人们希望这可能只是一个开始下降的统计信号，”韦克斯勒告诉美联社。“那还没发生。这才是真正让主管们担心的，我们可能正进入一个新的时期，在这个时期，我们将看到20年来这类犯罪下降趋势的逆转。”
4 mass shootings in 6 hours leave 39 wounded, 5 dead across US
At least four major U.S. cities were reeling from an onslaught of mass shootings over the weekend that left at least 39 people wounded, five dead and police officials alarmed that the surge in gun violence is a prelude to a bloody summer as the nation emerges from the pandemic.
Police in Austin, Cleveland, Chicago and Savannah were all investigating on Sunday mass shootings that erupted over a six-hour streak that began around 9 p.m. on Friday and spilled over into Saturday morning.
"It’s very disturbing what we’re seeing across the country and the level of gun violence that we’re seeing across the country. It’s disturbing and it’s senseless," Savannah Police Chief Roy Minter, Jr. said at a weekend news conference after one person was killed and eight others, including an 18-month-old baby and two teenagers, were wounded.
On Sunday morning, Savannah police were working to identify the suspect or suspects who rolled up in a dark-colored sedan and unleashed a barrage of gunfire around 9 p.m. Friday on a group of people standing in front of a home in a residential neighborhood of east Savannah. Minter identified a 20-year-old man killed in the ambush as Arthur Milton of Savannah.
He said two of the adults hit in the shooting were in critical condition. The baby and the two teenagers, ages 15 and 16, suffered non-life-threatening wounds.
Minton said investigators collected 60 shell casings from the shooting scene and added that three houses and several cars were damaged by gunfire.
The chief said the targeted home is the same one someone sprayed with bullets on Tuesday, a shooting that left no one injured.
"We don't think it was a coincidence," Minter said.
Roughly four hours after the Savannah shooting, gunfire erupted on a street inAustin's downtownentertainment district, leaving 14 people wounded, two critically, police said.
One suspect was arrested and a second is being sought, said interim Police Chief Joseph Chacon.
Chacon said the mass shooting broke out about 1:24 a.m. and appeared to have been prompted by a dispute between two groups. He said most of the shooting victims were innocent bystanders.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler tweeted that the mass-casualty shooting occurred even as police initiated multiple violence prevention programs intended to combat a recent increase in shootings in the Texas capital city.
"But this crisis requires a broader, coordinated response from all levels of government," Adler said. "One thing is clear - greater access to firearms does not equal greater public safety."
The Austin mass shooting was quickly followed by one that erupted on a sidewalk on the South Side of Chicago that left a woman dead and nine people injured, according to police.
Chicago police officials said investigators are searching for two suspects who walked up to a crowd gathered on the sidewalk in a business district in Chicago's Chatham neighborhood and opened fire just after 2 a.m. on Saturday, according to a police department online incident report. The nine adults who suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the shooting ranged in age from 23 to 46, according to the report.
The Cook County Medical Examiner identified Kimfier Miles, 29, as the woman killed in the shooting.
Those shot in the Chicago attack were among a total of 44 people shot across the city, including six fatally, since Friday, according to a review by ABC News of online crime reports.
The Gun Violence Archive, an online site that tracks shootings across the country, reports that there have been 270 mass shootings in 2021. The site defines mass shootings as single incidents in which four or more people are shot, regardless of whether anyone dies.
Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, told TheAssociated Pressthat the seemingly non-stop incidents of mass shootings and surging violent crime across the country has police officials bracing for a long and perilous summer as COVID-19 restrictions continue to be lifted and people begin to interact more.
"There was a hope this might simply be a statistical blip that would start to come down,” Wexler told the AP. "That hasn’t happened. And that’s what really makes chiefs worry that we may be entering a new period where we will see a reversal of 20 years of declines in these crimes."
