Homicide Watch Chicago

By JEFF MAYES and ANDY GRIMM
Chicago Sun-Times

After closing the books on another bloody month, Chicago Police went all out to try to reverse the recent trend of violent holiday weekends. Results were mixed at best.

Prior to the Fourth of July weekend, police closed the books on yet another month of disheartening crime statistics. Ugly trends continued with 72 murders during the month. The six-month tally of 315 killings as of June 30 was 49 percent higher than the first half of 2015 and puts the city on pace for 700 killings for the year.

The increased violence comes in a year that has featured unusually warm weather—a factor in urban violence—and diminished police morale and public trust as the city grapples with the fallout of protests over police brutality.

In a statement issued ahead of the official release of the June crime stats, Supt. Eddie Johnson called the level of violence in the city “unacceptable” and largely attributable to “repeat offenders with ties to gangs” and illegal guns.

On Friday, Johnson said Chicagoans could expect to see “thousands more” law enforcement officers in the city than during past Independence Day weekends. “While we face historical challenges … make no mistake about it, CPD is using every tool in its arsenal to ensure the safety of all Chicagoans,” Johnson told reporters near UIC.

And while the holiday weekend started out relatively peacefully, it still marked the end of a week in which another 13 people were killed across the city.

• The week’s final fatality was a northwest suburban man shot to death late Sunday near a school in Little Village. Officers responding about 10:50 p.m. to a call of a person down in the 2200 block of South Lawndale found 24-year-old Travon Clemmons lying on the ground with a gunshot wound to the back of the head, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

  Clemmons, of Hanover Park, was pronounced dead at the scene. The shooting occurred across the street from Paderewski Elementary Learning Academy.

• A man was fatally stabbed by his younger brother in a domestic fight early Saturday in Brainerd, but police said the younger man acted in self-defense. Willie Pittman, 33, got into an argument with his 28-year-old brother the night before, according to authoritiies. When Pittman returned to their home in the 9200 block of South Lowe about 5:15 a.m., his brother was there and they started fighting again.

  The younger brother pulled out a “cutting instrument” and stabbed Pittman in the left arm pit and lower back, authorities said. He was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he died about six hours later. An autopsy showed he died of multiple stab wounds and ruled the death a homicide, but police determined the younger man acted in self-defense, and said no charges were expected to be filed.

• Hector Badillo Jr., 31, was shot in the neck and died outside his father’s automotive shop Friday night in East Garfield Park, the first fatality of the holiday weekend. Badillo, who was frequently at the shop on weekends, playing cards and dominos with his father and other employees or working on cars, was outside the shop while his fiancee sat in her SUV across the street about 3:30 a.m.

  That’s when someone walked out of an alley in the middle of the 700 block of North California and fired shots, according to police. Badillo was struck in the neck and fell to the ground. He was pronounced dead at the scene. A 44-year-old man was also struck when a bullet went through the door of his SUV and struck his left leg, police said. He was taken to Stroger Hospital where his condition was stabilized, police said.

• A 34-year-old man was found shot to death Friday morning in Englewood. Officers responding to a call of shots fired in the 7400 block of South Morgan found Kenneth D. Whitaker on a sidewalk with gunshot wounds to the head and wrist, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Whitaker was pronounced dead at the scene at 6:08 a.m., authorities said.
• A man was killed and a woman wounded in a shooting earlier Friday in West Chatham. Robert Vaughn, 27; and a 34-year-old woman were shot just after midnight in the first block of West 76th Street, according to authorities.

  They were sitting in a car when a red pickup truck approached and someone inside fired shots. The woman was shot in the face and hip, and Vaughn was shot in the head, authorities said. She drove them to St. Bernard Hospital and Health Care Center, where Vaughn was pronounced dead. The woman was later transferred to Stroger Hospital in serious condition.

• Chanda Foreman spent her 37th birthday going to work, hanging out with her cousin and preparing to go out at night. But she was shot and killed, and four others people were wounded, when a gold Buick with four people inside pulled up about 9:45 p.m. Thursday in the 9500 block of South Loomis, and two gunmen opened fire from the back seat, according to police.

  Foreman and another woman were inside her car when they were shot, and three other people were shot on the front porch of Foreman’s aunt’s home. She died while being transported to Holy Cross Hospital with a gunshot wound to the head, police said.

• Two men were taken in critical condition to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. One, 33, was shot in the neck and the other, 25, suffered gunshot wounds to the arm, side and back, police said. A 45-year-old woman shot in the arm was taken to Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park along with a 54-year-old woman with wounds to the leg and foot, police said.
• A man was fatally shot Wednesday night in the Gold Coast neighborhood. Larry Lawrence, 27, was shot multiple times at 8:09 p.m. Wednesday in the 1200 block of North Clark Street, according to police and the medical examiner’s office.

  Lawrence, of the 6500 block of South King Drive, was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Witnesses said he was part of a group on one side of Clark that was arguing with a group on the other side. Despite traffic, the groups converged in the middle of the street, at which point someone shot Lawrence twice, according to a witness.

  Even with two gunshot wounds, he continued to yell at the shooter from the asphalt. The shooter, who had walked away, then walked back into the street and shot him several more times, according to a witness.

• Darrell E. Guy Jr. was found shot to death in an apartment Wednesday afternoon in Auburn Gresham. The 40-year-old was found with a gunshot wound to the head in an apartment in the 8000 block of South Green at 12:18 p.m., according to authorities. Guy, who lived on the same block, was pronounced dead at the scene.
• An 18-year-old downstate man was shot to death early Wednesday in Marquette Park. Marshawn Hilson of Peoria got out of a vehicle and approached a group of males at 2:03 a.m. in the 6300 block of South Talman, when someone in the group pulled a gun and opened fire, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Hilson suffered three gunshot wounds to the chest and one to the left side of the head. He was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead.
• A 30-year-old man was stabbed to death early Tuesday during a domestic fight in Back of the Yards, and his roommate is behind bars, charged with murder. Matusalem Dominguez-Gutierrez was found unresponsive with multiple stab wounds about 12:55 a.m. in the entrance hallway of a building in the 1700 block of West 51st Street, according to authorities.

  Dominguez-Gutierrez, who lived on the same block, was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy found he died of a stab wound to the thigh and his death was ruled a homicide.

  One of his roommates, Miguel Garcia, 43, had been drinking with Dominguez-Gutierrez and another roommate earlier that day when a fight broke out between Garcia and Dominguez-Gutierrez, Cook County prosecutors allege. Garcia threatened Dominguez-Gutierrez, and, after Dominguez-Gutierrez fell asleep, Garcia stabbed him in the thigh, striking his femoral artery, prosecutors said.

  Garcia is being held in the Cook County Jail on a $1 million bond.

• A man was killed and a woman injured in a drive-by shooting Monday night during a barbecue in Englewood. The pair were cooking outside about 11:25 p.m. in a vacant lot in the 6600 block of South Union when a black SUV drove by and someone inside opened fire, according to police.

  Alfondia Kelly, 44, was shot in the armpit and died at Stroger Hospital. He lived on the same block where the shooting happened. The woman, 21, suffered a gunshot wound to the back and was also taken to Stroger, where her condition was stabilized.

• A man was shot to death Monday night in the North Lawndale neighborhood. Officers found 24-year-old Kentrail McCray lying in the street in the 1600 block of South Kedzie at 9:22 p.m., according to police and the medical examiner’s office. McCray had gunshot wounds to the back and buttocks, and died at Mount Sinai Hospital.
• In the week’s first homicide, a 20-year-old man was killed in a shooting that also left an 18-year-old man wounded Monday afternoon in South Shore. The shooting happened about 2:05 p.m. Monday in the 7400 block of South South Shore Drive, police said.

• Dujuan Williams, 20, was shot in the head, arm and abdomen, and died at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The younger man, 18, was shot in the armpit and was stable at Northwestern, police said.