At least 27 shot, 7 dead, in Chicago over Christmas weekend

(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

At least 27 people were shot, 7 fatally, in Chicago during the Christmas holiday weekend, adding a bloody punctuation mark to the city’s already record-breaking year of gun violence.

In one of the shootings, an 18-year-old man was reportedly shot multiple times in the neck and back while he was driving at 1:30 a.m. on Christmas Day, according to The New York Times. Unfortunately, his death is one of hundreds of murders in 2016.

According to data logged by the Chicago Police Department, there have been 745 homicides this year, which is a 56 percent increase from 476 during the same time last year.

The Chicago Tribune reports that this year was the first time in nearly two decades that more than 700 homicides had been recorded in the city. The total number of shootings reached 4,252, up 47 percent from 2,884 at the same time in 2015.

Chicago’s gun violence epidemic is plagued by chronic gang activity, with disputes ranging from neighborhood turf to disagreements over girlfriends, the Times reports.

Nearly all of the people shot were men, the majority of whom were under 30.