By NADER ISSA, TAYLOR HARTZ and MITCHELL ARMENTROUT
Chicago SUn-Times
Ida Arvizu | GoFundMe
A pregnant woman and two brothers were among four people shot to death Friday night in Brighton Park, in the latest bloodshed stemming from an ongoing gang war in the Southwest Side neighborhood, officials said.
The woman, Ida Arvizu; and three men, Michelle Adrian Cano, Joel Sandoval, and his brother Miguel Sandoval were found in a car by officers responding to a call of shots fired about 8:35 p.m. in the 4700 block of South Fairfield, according to Chicago Police.
Ald. Ray Lopez said her mother confirmed to authorities that the 28-year-old Arvizu, who worked as a dental hygienist, was pregnant when she was killed.
A GoFundMe page was set up to help with funeral costs for Arvizu, whom the author said was 7 months pregnant with a boy to be named Reymundo, and also had a 7-year-old daughter, Jaelyn.
Friends said Joel Sandoval was Arvizu’s ex-boyfriend and the father of both children.
Arvizu, 24-year-old Joel Sandoval, 27-year-old Miguel Sandoval, and the 21-year-old Cano, who was known as “Kano,” all suffered multiple gunshot wounds and their deaths were ruled homicides.
Michelle Adrian Cano | Facebook
The slain men were thought to be members of the Satan’s Disciples street gang, with the assault rifle gunfire killings carried out by Latin Saints members in retaliation for a Thursday night shooting in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, Lopez said.
Satan’s Disciples members are thought to have returned fire once again in a Saturday morning shooting that left two men wounded, according to the alderman, who said the ongoing gang war has been fueled on social media.
“The revolving door of retaliation keeps rolling,” Lopez said. “They are acting like this is a game. This is a blood sport for them.”
He said “Gun videos” and a so-called “blood sport ‘scorecard’ on Facebook and YouTube” fuel violence in Brighton Park and Back of the Yards, adding, “Time to shut down these pages @Chicago_Police.”
Arvizu lived in the same neighborhood where she was killed, according to the medical examiner’s office. Cano lived in Englewood, and the Sandovals lived in Gage Park.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the Sandoval families, including Joel Sandoval’s daughter and Miguel Sandoval’s young son.
At the crime scene Friday night, police placed a white sheet over the shattered windshield of the sedan, which idled at the corner of 47th and Fairfield next to a warehouse. Dozens of gold rifle casings littered the street and sidewalk nearby.
Family members made frantic calls and clutched each other outside the block-long crime scene.
“We’re still trying to figure out who’s who,” an officer told a sobbing woman who tried to push past him.
Marisela Rodrigues said she was putting away dishes in her apartment about three blocks away when she heard rapid gunfire—at least 20 shots.
“It sounded like something out of a movie,” she said.
The four victims were among 10 killed in the deadliest weekend in the city in months. By the time the weekend over, the city had recorded a total 499 homicides for the year.