Homicide Watch Chicago

By JEFF MAYES
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

At least 11 people were fatally shot in Chicago last week, and another man was stabbed to death as the city’s homicide total climbed to over 125 just 10 weeks into the year.

Sixteen-year-old Percy Julian High student Andre Taylor was shot to death Sunday night in the Rosemoor neighborhood on the Far South Side.

Officers responding to a call of shots fired about 7:50 p.m. in the 10000 block of South Indiana found the boy lying in the front yard of a home, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Taylor, who lived on the same block, had suffered a gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.

A 22-year-old man was fatally shot early Saturday in the Avondale neighborhood on the Northwest Side. Ricardo Montes was on a sidewalk in the 3200 block of West Addison about 3:30 a.m. when someone opened fire from a passing SUV, police and the medical examiner’s office said.

Montes, who lived in the 3700 block of North Albany, was shot in the back and was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he later died.
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By JEFF MAYES
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Despite the first weekend of the year in which there were no fatal shootings, at least seven people died from violence last week in Chicago. And while that number is unacceptable, it was the lowest number of murders in the city since the week of New Year’s, when only 5 people were killed.

A north suburban man was fatally shot after an argument in the Grand Boulevard neighborhood on Friday night.

Wavey Brown, 44, was arguing with another man in an alley in the 5000 block of South Calumet Avenue at 9:30 p.m. when the other man pulled out a gun and fired, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

Brown, who lived in the 300 block of Washington Street in Waukegan, suffered a gunshot wound to the back, and was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 10:18 p.m., authorities said.

Also Friday, a 22-year-old west suburban man was fatally shot in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood on the Northwest Side. About 1:15 a.m., Courtney Copeland got out of a car in the 5500 block of West Grand and approached officers in a squad car in front of the 25th District police station, police said.
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By JEFF MAYES
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

At least eight people were killed in Chicago violence last week, including a woman shot while sitting in a cab on the South Side, and cab driver killed during an armed robbery on the North Side.

A man and woman killed in separate shootings over the weekend pushed the year’s homicide tally past 100—a mark reached almost two months earlier than in 2015, according to Chicago Sun-Times Wire data. And the 102 killing is almost double the number from a year ago, when January and February combing for 52 homicides.

The city has now recorded at least 102 homicides for the year. Chicago did not record its 100th homicide last year until April 16. The last time there were 100 homicides in the first two months of a year was 1997, when there were 101.

Eric D. Henry Jr. was killed and a woman seriously injured in a shooting Saturday afternoon in Auburn Gresham.

The 26-year-old and a 24-year-old woman were sitting in a vehicle in the 900 block of West 85th Street at 3:47 p.m. when someone walked up to the vehicle and fired shots, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
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By JEFF MAYES
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

At least nine people were killed in violence in Chicago last week, though one of the deaths is being treated an accident; and the body of a 10th victim was found after he’d been missing by his family for almost two months.

A 33-year-old man died Sunday morning, about 12 hours after being shot in a drive-by in the Chatham neighborhood. Carlos James Hemphill Jr. was critically injured in a shooting in the 8100 block of South Harvard about 10 p.m. Saturday, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. He was taken in critical condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he died at 10:26 a.m. Sunday.

One man was killed and another wounded in a Chatham neighborhood shooting early Sunday. The men, both 25, were at a party in the 600 block of East 79th Street about 2:30 a.m. when a fight broke out and someone opened fire, according to police.

Raheem L. Robinson was shot in the abdomen and died at a hospital less than an hour later, according to the medical examiner’s office. He lived in the 400 block of West 103rd Street.

The other man was shot in the right shoulder and his condition was stabilized, police said.

A 34-year-old man who police called a felon and a gang member has been charged with the fatal stabbing of his girlfriend during an argument Saturday night in Bridgeport.
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By JEFF MAYES
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

The frigid cold did not stop the bloodshed in Chicago last week, when at least 11 people were killed in violence, though two were men who had been injured the week before.

Two men who were found shot to death Sunday morning in an apartment in Grand Boulevard. Police responded to a call of a person shot in the 5000 block of South Champlain at 10:50 a.m. and found Jeremy D. Hunter, 25; and Steven Tate, 26, dead inside an apartment, authorities said.

Hunter, who lived on that block, died of a gunshot wound to the head; and Tate, of the 6500 block of South Drexel, died of multiple gunshot wounds, according to the medical examiner’s office.

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By JEFF MAYES
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

At least 17 people were killed in violence in Chicago in the last week, including one of the most shocking crimes in the city in recent memory in which six members of the same family, including two young boys, were found slain in a home that one responding police officer called a “bloody mess.”

Chicago Police said there were no signs that anyone had ransacked a house where six people, three generations of one Mexican immigrant family, had been slain. The victims—two men, two women and two boys ages 10 and 13,—were found dead Thursday afternoon after police checked on the well-being of a man who didn’t show up to work for two days.

Family members and the medical examiner’s office identified the victims as: 62-year-old Noe Martinez Sr. and his wife, 58-year-old Rosaura Martinez; their adult children, 38-year-old Noe Martinez Jr. and 32-year-old Maria Herminia Martinez; and Herminia’s sons, 10-year-old Alexis Cruz and 13-year-old Leonardo Cruz.

Autopsies found the boys suffered “sharp force” injuries, which a spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office defined as either a stabbing or cutting wound, or both. Herminia Martinez died of gunshot wounds. Noe Martinez Sr. died of “sharp force” wounds. And his wife and his son, Noe Jr., died of “multiple sharp and blunt force injuries,” autopsies showed.

While a police source said the family was targeted, no motive for the crime has been given, and no suspects were in custody four days later.

The last homicide of the week left one man dead and another wounded in a Humboldt Park neighborhood shooting Sunday afternoon. About 12:45 p.m., 21-year-old Dwight Hughes Jr. was outside in the 3900 block of West Augusta when three people walked out of an alley and one of them started shooting, according to police and the medical examiner’s office.
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By JEFF MAYES
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

At least 21 people died from violence last week in Chicago, as shooting and murder totals continue to soar in the new year. One of the fatal shootings may be ruled self-defense after a man was killed while allegedly breaking into a home and attacking a woman. ANother man was also shot, this time by Chicago Police, while allegedly committing a home invasion, leading to murder charges against an accomplice..

January ended with a marked spike in Chicago gun violence compared to a year ago, with more than double the number of shootings and a 75 percent uptick in murders, according to statistics released by Chicago Police on Monday.

The city logged 292 gunshot victims in 242 separate shooting incidents from Jan. 1-31, police said. That’s an increase from 136 victims in 119 shootings during the same period last year.

Police also reported 51 murders so far this year, a jump from 29 last January. Detectives have solved 14 murders, including eight from 2016 and six from prior years, police said.

One of this week’s murders may have been justified, according to police. A woman fatally shot a man who broke into her home and beat her early Sunday in Woodlawn.

About 5:15 a.m., Reginald Brown broke into the home in the 400 block of East 62nd Street and began to beat the woman who lived there, according to police. The 28-year-old woman was able to grab a handgun and shot the man to death during the struggle.

Brown, 30, was pronounced dead at the scene at 5:35 a.m. An autopsy showed he died of a gunshot wound to the chest.

Police said the woman knew the man and the incident was domestic-related. The woman has a valid FOID card and no charges were expected to be filed in the shooting.

A man and teenage boy were found with gunshot wounds in a vehicle that had crashed early Sunday in the Irving Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side. The vehicle was northbound in the 3700 block of North California about 5:15 a.m. when it struck a planter, according to police.
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By JEFF MAYES
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

At least eight people were killed by gunfire in Chicago last week, and a ninth man was stabbed to death as the violent start to 2016 continued in spite of some frigid temperatures.

Alphonzo Guinyard, 26, man was stabbed to death during an argument Sunday morning in East Garfield Park, Chicago Police said. Two men were arguing in the 3400 block of West Polk when it escalated into a fight about 9:20 a.m. The older man, 32, then stabbed the Guinyard in the back. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said the argument was domestic-related, but the exact relationship between the men was not immediately known. The suspect was taken into custody and charges are pending, police said.

One man was killed and another wounded in a shooting Saturday night in Roseland. The men, ages 21 and 26, were sitting in a car parked in the 9600 block of South Calumet about 10:45 p.m. when a gunman got out of a dark-colored car, walked up and started shooting, according to police. A friend drove them to Roseland Community Hospital.
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By JEFF MAYES
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

A violent and bloody start to 2016 continued with at least 10 people killed by gunfire in Chicago last week, bringing the death toll from firearms to 30 in the first 17 days of the new year.

A 39-year-old man was fatally shot in a Northwest Side alley Sunday evening in the Hermosa neighborhood.

Emergency crews found Rene Ramirez unresponsive with a gunshot wound to the back just before 6 p.m. in the alley in the 1900 block of North Keeler, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Ramirez, who lived on the same block, was taken to Presence Saints Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at 7 p.m., according to the medical examiner’s office.

Henry Cruz was fatally shot Saturday night in the Irving Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side.
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By JEFF MAYES
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

The new year got off to a bloody start in Chicago, with at least 16 people, five of them teenagers, killed in shootings across the city last week, including at least four who died in a series of shootings Friday night.

The week ended violently with more than 30 people shot, and seven killed, from Friday night through Sunday.

One man was killed and a woman wounded in a shooting Saturday afternoon in Back of the Yards. Erick L. Lacey and the woman, both 19, were sitting in a vehicle in the 5200 block of South Peoria about 2 p.m. when a car pulled up behind them and someone inside started firing, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Lacey, who lived in the 5100 block of South May Street, was shot in the head and was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said. The woman was shot in the back and was taken to Stroger Hospital, where her condition was stabilized.

Two teenage armed robbers were shot to death by a liquor store employee Saturday night in Auburn Gresham. Police responded to a call of an attempted robbery at Z&S Food and Liquor at 1351 W. 87th St. just after 8:30 p.m., authorities said.
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