Eight people were killed and 40 others were injured as a result of gun violence during a bloody weekend in Chicago, city police reported.

Nine people were wounded Friday after 5 p.m., 15 were shot Saturday, and 24 on Sunday, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Among those shot and killed on Sunday was a 3-year-old boy in an incident police say was an accident.

It was Chicago's bloodiest weekend so far this year.

Last weekend, shootings left three dead and 40 others wounded, the Sun-Times reported.

Gun violence in Chicago is often pointed to by police and community leaders nationwide as the most glaring example of the pervasiveness of criminal activity in America's biggest cities, which they say is out of control.

During a press conference before a high-profile hate crime hoax involving celebrity Jussie Smollett earlier this year, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie T. Johnson used the case to highlight what he characterized as hypocrisy by media members in the attention they pay to the city's problems.

"Before I get started on why we’re here, you know, as I look out into the crowd I just wish that the families of gun violence in this city got this much attention," Johnson said. "Because that’s who really deserves the amount of attention that we’re giving to this particular incident."