Zelisa McCullom lives on West Side block where a 16-year-old girl was among five people seriously wounded in a shooting over the holiday weekend in 2022.

But this year, with four men killed and at least 21 others wounded in shootings across the city, Chicago saw the least violent Memorial Day weekend in at least 16 years.

Hearing about the drop in violent crime across the city was heartening, she said.

Tallies from 5 p.m. Friday through 5 a.m. Tuesday show violence levels dropped dramatically from each of the last three years, when between 9 and 12 people were shot and killed over the holiday weekend and total shooting victims ranged from nearly 40 to nearly 50, according to city data.

“The city, we’re getting better,” said McCullom, 38. There were no shootings on her block this holiday. “We celebrate the good days.”

In addition to those shot from 5 p.m. Friday through 5 a.m. Tuesday, three people were also injured during stabbings, according to Chicago police.

It’s part of a decline in violent crime citywide, as last year was the first since 2019 with fewer than 600 homicides and a nearly three-year upswing in robberies ended last summer .

But the drop this year was even more historic. In an analysis of shootings going back to 2010 by the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ, this past weekend saw the lowest number of total shooting victims. The most violent Memorial Day weekend in that time was in 2016, when 59 people were wounded and seven killed in gunfire.

Shootings dipped and then spiked again at the start of the pandemic in 2020. Eleven people were killed and 42 wounded over the Memorial Day weekend that year, when then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot called the violence a “ bloodbath ” and a “fail” on the part of CPD leadership.

“We have to do better. We cannot have weekends in the summer turn into a bloodbath. And this weekend’s violence was out of control,” Lightfoot said at the time.

The drop in shootings during this year’s Memorial Day weekend coincided with an unseasonably cold weekend, with Chicago’s high temperature near the lake remaining below 60 degrees each day, according to the National Weather Service.

Fatal shootings in Morgan Park, Humboldt Park and North Lawndale

This holiday, the most recent fatal shooting of the weekend occurred early Tuesday in Morgan Park, while two men were killed Saturday in Humboldt Park and another person was murdered Monday on the West Side.

Cordell L. Avant, 38, was arguing with someone in a gray SUV around 1:15 a.m. Tuesday in the 11000 block of South Ashland Avenue when he was shot multiple times, Chicago police said. The 38-year-old was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he died.

On Monday, Anthony Harvey, 42, was found with a gunshot wound to the chest around 8:40 p.m. in the 1600 block of South Springfield Avenue in North Lawndale and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital initially in critical condition and was pronounced dead there a few hours later, at 11:35 p.m., police said.

On Saturday, Joaquin Trujillo, 35, was in a car and arguing with another man in a separate car around 2:45 a.m. in the 1700 block of North Spaulding Avenue, police said. He got out of his car during the argument and the other man shot him multiple times . Trujillo was taken to Stroger Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Chicago police investigate in the 1700 block of North Spaulding Avenue in Humboldt Park, after a 35-year-old man was shot to death, authorities said, Saturday, May 24, 2025.

Later that day, an unidentified 46-year-old man was behind the wheel of his vehicle near a homeless encampment in the 800 block of North Sacramento Avenue about 4:10 p.m. when he was shot in the head, police said. Surveillance video showed the victim was parked near the encampment, in the 3000 block of West Chicago Avenue, at the time of the shooting and moments after it, he drove away and rammed into a parked car and a light pole. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition but was pronounced dead there hours later.

About 12 hours later, two people were shot at the same encampment, including a person only identified as a female who was shot in the shoulder and a 59-year-old man who was shot in the kneecap, according to a police report.

No arrests have been made in any of the incidents.

More jobs, youth programs needed, residents say

Residents who have seen violence over Memorial Day weekend in recent years said the fall in crime has been noticeable, but the city can do more to improve their safety and quality of life.

As a mother of two teens, McCullom said more youth programming and jobs in the area would keep young people busy and support safety in the community. She said programs like After School Matters, a non-profit that offers teens job training and after school programs, help young people and she would like to see similar opportunities offered in more neighborhoods, especially summer — the season when much of the city’s violence has historically been recorded — approaches.

“I feel that they need that. Jobs, anything to help,” she said. “If the community comes together, I feel like the violence will go down in the summer.”

Mayor Johnson gave appreciation Tuesday to the collective work done to help curb violence over the long weekend.

He credited the hiring of 200 detectives and increased clearance rates in homicides and shootings as some of the key factors for the dip in Memorial Day weekend violence.

“If you shoot someone or shoot at someone, we’re gonna hold you accountable,” Johnson said at press conference.

Johnson also touted the investment in mental health support services, youth employment and housing as ways that have effectively fought violence throughout the city.

The relatively peaceful Memorial Day weekend is a sign that the city’s violence intervention organizations are helping move the needle in the right direction, said Les Jenkins, associate director of reentry and support services at the Institute of Nonviolence Chicago, which connects people at high risk of gun violence with resources in conflict mediation, victim advocacy and nonviolence training.

“It’s a showing of all the amazing work and us engaging relentlessly with communities to continue to combat or face the challenges around violence. It shows the man-hours that we spend out in the community,” Jenkins said.

Said Johnson: “All of these are efforts to bring the full force of government to show up for the people of Chicago. I’m committed to making sure that every single neighborhood across this city is safer.”