"It’s disturbing and it’s senseless," Savannah police chief said.
"It’s very disturbing what we’re seeing across the country and the level of gun violence that we’re seeing across the country.
The Gun Violence Archive, an online site that tracks shootings across the country, reports that there have been 270 mass shootings in 2021. The site defines mass shootings as single incidents in which four or more people are shot, regardless of whether anyone dies.
Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, told The Associated Press that the seemingly non-stop incidents of mass shootings and surging violent crime across the country has police officials bracing for a long and perilous summer as COVID-19 restrictions continue to be lifted and people begin to interact more.
"There was a hope this might simply be a statistical blip that would start to come down,” Wexler told the AP. "That hasn’t happened. And that’s what really makes chiefs worry that we may be entering a new period where we will see a reversal of 20 years of declines in these crimes."