Deadliest Day in Chicago: 18 Murders in 24 Hours

The city of Chicago recorded 18 murders on May 31, making it the deadliest day since the University of Chicago Crime Lab began collecting police data, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Monday.

“We’ve never seen anything like it, at all,” the crime lab’s senior research director, Max Kapustin, told the newspaper. “I don’t even know how to put it into context. It’s beyond anything that we’ve ever seen before.”

“The level of activity experienced over the last week has been unprecedented and the department is actively investigating multiple incidents across the city and working to determine the motives in these cases,” Chicago Police spokesman Thomas Ahern told the Sun-Times, adding that the department was “actively working to seek justice for all the residents impacted, especially those who have been killed or injured by these senseless acts of violence.”

Those killed on May 31 include Keishanay Bolden, an 18-year-old student at Western Illinois University studying law enforcement and justice. She wanted to be a corrections officer, and was fatally shot during an argument in her hometown neighborhood of Englewood, the paper reported.

Another 18-year-old student, Lazarra Daniels, a student at DRW College Prep in Lawndale, was shot to death, police reported.