WEEK IN REVIEW: 10 more dead in Chicago violence, but two more cases remain unclassified

By JEFF MAYES
Chicago Sun-Times
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Ten more people died from violence in Chicago last week, and that number could go up after police and medical examiner’s investigations are complete.

The dead included nine people who were shot, and a man who was stabbed in his home.

The number does not include a woman run down by a car, an incident which witnesses claimed was intentional; and a woman whose body was found in a trash can. In both cases, autopsy results were inconclusive, with results pending further investigation.

The weekend’s last homicide occurred when a man was killed and a teenage boy wounded in a shooting Sunday afternoon in the West Side Austin neighborhood. The shooting happened about 2:40 p.m. in the 100 block of North Parkside, Chicago Police said.

Jerrelle Elton Johnson Jr., 18, was shot in the back and was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:52 p.m., according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. He lived on the Near West Side.

The 15-year-old suffered a gunshot wound to the shin, and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where his condition was stabilized. The shooting happened in the same block where three men were shot about 10:40 p.m. the night before.

  • One man was killed and two other people wounded in another Austin earlier Sunday. The group was walking at 1:08 a.m. in the 4900 block of West Hubbard when shots rang out and all were struck, according to police. A 34-year-old man was shot in the chest and was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 1:53 a.m., according to police and the medical examiner’s office. His name had not been released as of Thursday morning, pending notification of family. A 23-year-old woman was shot in the hand and a 33-year-old man in the shoulder, police said. Both were taken to Stroger, where their conditions were stabilized.
  • A woman was found shot to death in a South Chicago home early Saturday. About 12:20 a.m., Tina Brown, 53, was found with a gunshot wound to the head inside a home in the 8000 block of South Essex Avenue, authorities said. The shooting might have stemmed from a domestic issue, police said.
  • A teenage boy was shot to death Thursday evening near the Dearborn Homes public housing project on the South Side. About 8:30 p.m., a vehicle pulled up in the 2700 block of South State Street and someone inside began shooting at 16-year-old Rayshon Price, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Price, who lived on the same block, was shot in the head as he tried to run away. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
  • A downstate man was shot to death about two hours earlier in the Park Manor neighborhood on the South Side. Cortez L. Brown, 29, was shot in the head at 6:37 p.m. by someone who got out of a Chevrolet Equinox and fired at him in the 6900 block of South Indiana, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. He was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Brown was a resident of Kankakee.
  • A 26-year-old south suburban man was fatally shot Wednesday evening in the Fernwood neighborhood on the Far South Side. At 8:04 p.m., Melvin McCray was in the 10200 block of South State when someone got out of a vehicle and shot him multiple times, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. He was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead, authorities said. McCray was a resident of Posen.
  • A 35-year-old west suburban woman was fatally shot earlier Wednesday in the Longwood Manor neighborhood on the South Side. Tashika Manuel-Dunbar was sitting in a vehicle at 2:44 a.m. in the 9700 block of South Morgan when another vehicle approached and someone inside fired shots, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Manuel-Dunbar suffered gunshot wounds to the arm and torso, and was taken to Roseland Community Hospital, where she was pronounced dead 90 minutes later. She lived in Forest Park.
  • A man was shot to death two hours earlier in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side. James D. King, 22, was found about 12:35 a.m. lying in the street with a gunshot wound to the chest in the 6600 block of South Carpenter, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. King, a Near West Side resident, was taken to Christ Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead just over an hour later.
  • A man was shot to death Tuesday morning in the North Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side. Officers responded to a call of shots fired about 11 a.m. in the 1100 block of South Karlov, and found 34-year-old Jonathan Green lying in the street with gunshot wounds to the head and torso, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Green lived about a block away.
  • A 60-year-old man was found stabbed to death Monday morning in his South Side Chatham neighborhood home. Antonio P. Vaughn Sr. was found with stab wounds to the neck and chest inside in the 500 block of East 92nd Street at 11:15 a.m., according to police and the medical examiner’s office. He was dead at the scene. An autopsy Tuesday found he died of multiple sharp force injuries, and his death was ruled a homicide.
    • The two pending cases could bring the weekly number of homicides up.

      One case involves a woman found dead Saturday afternoon inside a trash container in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood on the Northwest Side. Kelena Hamilton, 33, was discovered dead in the 2100 block of North Laramie, according to authorities. The Rosemoor neighborhood resident was pronounced dead at the scene, but an autopsy did not rule on Hamilton’s cause and manner of death. Police said she was found in a trash container, but no injuries were immediately apparent.

      Another woman was killed when she was struck and dragged under a vehicle Wednesday evening in Austin Naisha Weems, 27, was involved in an argument with another woman, whose identity is known to investigators, at 5:06 p.m. in the 300 block of North Latrobe, police said. The other woman then got into a vehicle and struck multiple people as she drove off.

      Weems was taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where she died at 8:54 p.m. An autopsy Thursday did not rule on cause and manner of death. Police said the driver was not in custody as of Thursday morning.

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