At least 27 people were shot in Chicago over Christmas weekend

At least 27 people were shot in a 48-hour period over Christmas weekend, the New York Timesreported on Sunday, citing information from the Chicago police department, seven of them fatally.

One of the people killed was an 18-year-old man who was shot in the neck and back while he was driving through Chicago's Gage Park neighborhood early Christmas Day, around 1:30 a.m., reported the Times. Less than an hour earlier, a 21-year-old man was fatally shot in the head in the South Shore neighborhood, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Officer Jose Estrada, a spokesperson for the Chicago police department told the Times on Sundaythat there had been a total of 745 homicides in Chicago this year — a more-than 50% increase from the same time last year, when the total was 476.

While homicides in Chicago have, as the Times reports, "skyrocketed" this year, the national murder rate hit a 33-year-low in 2016, the FBI announced in October, according to ABC News.

In Chicago however, Christmas weekend was deadly yet again — NBC5 Chicago reported that last Christmas weekend, 30 people were shot in Chicago and six died.

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