BY WILL HAGER
For Homicide Watch Chicago
After an increase in gun violence over the recent Fourth of July and Labor Day holiday weekends, should Chicago residents expect another surge in violence with Halloween falling on a Friday?
Since 2007, Chicago has seen an increase in killings on Halloween compared with the average number of slayings during any given day in October, according to data from the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
During that time, there have been a total of 16 killings on Halloween, and another seven in the early morning hours of Nov. 1, according to the medical examiner’s office data. On any October day since 2007, an average of about 1.25 people were killed each day.
Halloween has fallen on a weekend twice since 2007: in 2009 and 2010. A total of 14 people were killed during those two holiday weekends.
The increase in killings coincides with what some criminologists describe as an increase in violence because more people are on the street.
Indeed, some of the Halloween murders since 2007 have happened because people are out trick or treating.
In 2007, 32-year-old Leticia Barrera, an expectant mother of three, was fatally shot on Halloween while returning home from trick-or-treating with her children, authorities said.
Prosecutors claimed 21-year-old Orlando Avila and another gunman opened fire on rival gang members in the 4800 block of South Seeley Avenue but instead shot Barrera. Avila was convicted of murder and sentenced to 65 years in prison.
In 2009, paraplegic purported gang member Andrew Ruiz fatally shot 23-year-old Manny Roman near North Central Park and West Grand avenues because “it was Halloween and somebody was going to die,” prosecutors said.
Ruiz was sentenced to 99 years in prison for the shooting, which also left Roman’s stepbrother seriously wounded, authorities said.
In 2011, Maria Adams was fatally stabbed with a steak knife during a dispute over missing Halloween candy, authorities said.
Other criminologists have noted that crime generally decreases in cold, rainy weather. The National Weather Service is predicting a high of 42 degrees with a chance of rain and snow this Halloween.
Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy has previously noted that weather neither causes nor prevents crime.