It should have been a time for celebration when people across the nation were proud to say they were American.
But instead the July 4 weekend was plagued by spates of violence all over the country.
Six men died and 28 others were wounded in a number of shootings and stabbings across Chicago between Friday afternoon and this morning.
Police have been unable to make any arrests connected with the shootings and other spates of violence over the holiday weekend.
Despite the deluge of shootings and other violent crimes, Mayor Rahm Emanuel congratulated the city’s public safety agencies for making fewer arrests at the city’s festivals.
He said: ‘I commend the City’s public safety agencies and employees for their efforts to make this year’s event the safest in recent memory.’
In Baltimore, a child was shot in the leg and a man stabbed to death at the Inner Harbour after the city’s fireworks display.
As the fireworks kicked off and America the Beautiful was played, a fight unfolded on the promenade and minutes later a four-year-old walking nearby with his parents was shot. Police believe it was from a stray bullet.
Authorities are currently interviewing a person of interest in the fatal stabbing of the 26-year-old man.
In Indiana, police are investigating three shootings that injured two teenagers in the down town area in the early hours of this morning.
One 17-year-old was shot in the foot and the other – also 17 – was shot in the lower back.
In Boston, eight people were shot, four of them fatally over the holiday weekend.
It culminated in a particularly violent week in the city when there were more than a dozen shootings.
