By JEFF MAYES
Homicide Watch Chicago
A week that started out with about four full days without a homicide suddenly exploded into a bloodbath when four shootings left eight people dead in a matter of 24 hours in the South Shore neighborhood, and by the time it ended, 18 lives were lost to violence in Chicago last week.
After nearly four days of from early Sunday morning until Wednesday night, a man shot to death in the South Shore neighborhood. Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said 37-year-old Jerry Jacobs was walking on the sidewalk at 11:13 p.m. March 29 in the 7900 block of South Phillips when four males got out of a dark-colored vehicle and shot at him.
Jacobs, who lived in the same neighborhood, suffered a gunshot wound to the right side of his body and took himself to South Shore Hospital. He was later transferred to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:40 a.m. Thursday, March 31.
And that was just the start, according to Cook County prosecutors, who claim that Jacobs’ son, 19-year-old Maurice Harris, fatally shot four people at the Nadia Fish and Chicken restaurant at 75th and Coles in retaliation for his father’s death. Charged on Wednesday with four counts of murder, Harris was ordered held without bond.
The four people were killed about 3:30 p.m., when shooter walked into the diner and opened fire, according to family members of the victims. Two men were fatally shot inside the restaurant. They were identified as 28-year-old Emmanuel C. Stokes, and 32-year-old Edwin Davis.
Two other men, brothers Dillon and Raheam Jackson, ran from the restaurant as gunfire erupted, but both were fatally shot in different parking lots within a block of the restaurant. They had been going to visit their mother, who worked at the restaurant.
All four were pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Police also believe two other deaths, a man and a woman shot to death Thursday night in South Shore may also be related, all part of a gang war in the South Side community. Just after 11 p.m., 27-year-old Cornell M. Patrick and 23-year-old Dominique Victoria Scott were riding in a gray van southbound on South Shore Drive when a black Jeep pulled alongside near 70th Street, according to police and the medical examiner’s office.
A shooter in the Jeep opened fire, hitting Scott in the side of the head as she sat in the front passenger seat. Patrick was shot in the side of his body in the backseat. The van crashed into a pole at 71st Street. Patrick, of the South Deering neighborhood; and Scott, of Gary, Indiana, were dead at the scene, according to the medical examiner’s office.
Just before the restaurant massacre, a pregnant woman was found shot to death Thursday afternoon in an apartment in South Shore, but police believe that was an isolated incident. Shortly after noon, Patrice L. Calvin, a 26-year-old woman who was four months pregnant, was found unresponsive with a gunshot wound to the head in an apartment in the 7500 block of South Luella, authorities said. She was dead at the scene.
- the week’s final homicides happened Sunday afternoon, when two men were killed and four others wounded in a shooting in the East Garfield Park neighborhood on the West Side. At 4:33 p.m., the men were standing in a group in the 3500 block of West Van Buren when a white, four-door car pulled up and multiple people got out and started shooting, according to police.
Two of the men, 23-year-old Deonta Turner and 27-year-old Lemont Davis, were shot in the chest, and were taken to Stroger Hospital, where they were pronounced dead just after 5 p.m., according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Autopsies Monday found Turner, of Uptown, died of a gunshot wound to the back; and Davis, of west suburban Oak Park, died of multiple gunshot wounds.
An 18-year-old man was shot in the chest; a 23-year-old man was shot in the back; and a 24-year-old man was shot in the chest, back and leg, police said. They were all taken in critical condition to Stroger Hospital. The sixth man, 26, suffered a gunshot wound to the right leg and was taken in good condition to Mount Sinai Hospital.
- One man was killed and another critically wounded in a shooting earlier Sunday afternoon in the South Side Auburn Gresham neighborhood. Courtney Lewis, 20, was with three other people about 12:30 p.m. inside a car in the 8200 block of South Ada when shots rang out and their vehicle sped away from the scene, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Two passengers in the car realized they’d been shot and the driver stopped in the 8400 block of South Aberdeen, police said.
Lewis was shot twice in the back and was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead at 1:15 p.m., the medical examiner’s office said. He lived in the same neighborhood as the shooting. A 19-year-old man suffered one gunshot wound to the back and was also taken to Christ Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition, police said.
- A 62-year-old man was found stabbed to death early Sunday in the Gresham neighborhood on the South Side. Robert L. Cox was found about 12:40 a.m. lying facedown in an alley in the 8500 block of South Peoria. He had suffered stab wounds to the head and neck, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Cox, a U.S. Army veteran who lived in the West Town neighborhood, was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy Sunday found he died of multiple sharp force injuries, and his death was ruled a homicide.
- A 23-year-old man was shot to death late Saturday in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side. About 11:40 p.m., Pier Charvell Minor was sitting in a parked vehicle in the 5200 block of West Chicago. Two males walked up and shot him in the head and chest before running away, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Minor, who lived in the same neighborhood, was pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital.
- A 34-year-old man was shot to death early Saturday during an attempted burglary at his West Pullman neighborhood home on the Far South Side. At 6:22 a.m., officers responded to a reported burglary in the 11700 block of South Normal and found Terry D. Torrence in the doorway of his home, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Torrence had been shot in the head and buttocks, and was pronounced dead at the scene.
- A 21-year-old man was fatally shot Friday evening in the South Chicago neighborhood. Officers responding to a call of a person shot just before 5 p.m. found Timothy Shannon unresponsive with a gunshot wound to his back in the 8700 block of South Saginaw Avenue, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Shannon, of the South Side Woodlawn neighborhood, was pronounced dead at the scene.
- A 23-year-old west suburban man shot Wednesday night in Austin died a day later. Romille McCall of Cicero was in a vehicle at 6:37 p.m. in the 5100 block of West Chicago Avenue when he was shot in the back and arm, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. McCall took himself to West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, where his condition was stabilized, authorities said. He was later transferred to Stroger Hospital, where he died at 2:25 p.m. Thursday.
- A 16-year-old boy died nine hours after he was shot Wednesday in the Roseland neighborhood on the Far South Side. Darmayah Smith was walking at 6:23 p.m. in the 11000 block of South Edbrooke when someone approached him on foot and opened fire, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. He suffered gunshot wounds to the torso and was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. Smith, who lived three blocks away from where he was shot, was pronounced dead at 3:58 a.m. Thursday.
- Another man died more than a week after he was wounded in a shooting in Englewood. Donald White, 29, was pronounced dead at 3:20 a.m. Friday at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn from complications of multiple gunshot wounds, the medical examiner’s office said. White was one of two men shot about 3:20 p.m. Tuesday, March 21, in the 1700 block of West 72nd Street, according to police. The other man, 28, was shot in the abdomen and was also taken to Christ, where he was initially listed in fair condition, police said.