Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy is seeking to reassure the public in the wake of a violent weekend. 46 people were shot in Chicago from last Thursday to Sunday. Nine of those victims died.

McCarthy says he’s not blaming the high number of shootings this past weekend on the unusually warm weather. He said he’s responsible.

“That long, hot summer I’ve been hearing for years and years and years. I mean, that’s just one of the sayings thats out there. Listen, we’re gonna get our head around this thing and we’re going to turn it around is what it boils down to. If we were sitting here saying, ‘We don’t know what’s going on, we don’t know what to do,’ that would be a different situation,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy said officers are looking for ways to better use information they already have to stop retaliatory gang shootings.

“It didn’t get like this overnight, right? It was a very long process for the Chicago gang problem to evolve into what it is and its not going to turn over overnight when we throw on a light switch,” McCarthy said.

According to police department numbers, as of Monday there had been 94 murders this year in Chicago, 28 more than the same time period last year.

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