According to a report, shootings and gang beatings occurred throughout the United States during the Juneteenth weekend, leading to at least 12 deaths and over 100 injuries. It seems that acts of violence have taken center stage on America’s newest public holiday. Juneteenth violence in 2023 continued from where it left off in 2021 and 2022.
Six teens were shot on Juneteenth, 2023, as a fight escalated to gunplay in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A young black man is seen in video recordings of the shooting on a boulevard named after Martin Luther King Jr. removing a weapon from his belt just before the gunfire and the crowd scattered.
Police Chief Jeffrey Norman of Milwaukee speculated that a brawl involving many teenage girls and a young woman was the root cause of the shooting.
Milwaukee’s Democrat mayor, Cavalier Johnson, called the Juneteenth celebration a glorious, safe event despite the gunfire that was seen in media reports.
Johnson failed to address the violence in a tweet he wrote several hours after the incident. He instead tweeted that he was on “the best” MLK street in the nation, on which the attack occurred.
Shootings, like the one in Milwaukee, occurred all around the nation on Juneteenth and the weekend of celebrations leading up to it.
According to a report from California, a gunman opened fire at a Juneteenth party in San Diego, killing one person and wounding another.
Police said a gunshot occurred in a park at Liberty Station, but the perpetrator has not been located.
A report shows that in Illinois, 23 people were shot, and one of them died.
It was reported that several shooters opened fire at a Juneteenth party in Willowbrook.
In North Carolina, a representative for the Asheville Police Department informed local media that they received a report in the evening concerning gunfire on Spruce Street in Asheville during a Juneteenth party.
Two victims had non-life-threatening injuries, according to police, and investigators are now interviewing potential suspects.
