Homicide Watch Chicago

Ten more people were homicide victims in Chicago during the week of Sept. 18-24 as the city passed another deadly milestone, as the 500th homicide of the year was recorded early in the week.

A man who died early Monday after being shot Sunday night in the Washington Heights neighborhood on the Far South Side turned out to be the 500th homicide of the year.

The only good news, relatively, was the 500th homicide came later in the year than it did in the 2016, when Chicago tallied 780 homicides for the year, the most in 20 years.

This year’s 500th homicide came on Sept. 25, while last year, it happened on Sept. 4.

John Bolden, 47, was sitting in a parked car at 11:22 p.m. in the 10100 block of South Racine when someone in a gray van fired shots, striking him multiple times in the side of the body, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. He was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he died at 12:20 a.m. Monday. As of Sept. 18, 2016, there had been 534 homicides.

In other homicides last week:

A man was killed in a drive-by shooting Sunday morning in the West Side Austin neighborhood. Dashawn Townes, 34, was shot in the neck and chest by someone in a silver sedan at 9:31 a.m. in the 900 block of North Massasoit, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Townes, who lived nearby, was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he died 30 minutes later.
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At least 16 people were killed during the week of September 11-17 in Chicago shootings, which included a gang-fueled incident on the Southwest Side that left four people, including a pregnant woman, dead.

And when it was all over, the city’s homicide total for the year stood at 499, with the 500th to follow shortly when a man who was shot late Sunday died the following day.

The four, a pregnant woman, the father of her child, that man’s brother and a friend, were shot to death Friday evening in a rifle attack the Brighton Park neighborhood. The victims were found in a car about 8:35 p.m. in the 4700 block of South Fairfield, Chicago Police said.

Michelle Adrian Cano, 21; Joel Sandoval, 24; Miguel Sandoval, 27; and Ida Arvizu, 28, were all pronounced dead at the scene, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Friends said the Sandovals were brothers, and Joel Sandoval was the father of Arvizu’s unborn son and 7-year-old daughter.

Chicago Police Sgt. Al Stinites said officers were responding to a call of shots fired when they found the four dead in the vehicle. Patrols in the 9th District were being stepped up Friday night in response to the killings, believed to be the result of an escalating turf war between two local gangs. Police and the local alderman said the killings were just the latest flare-ups in the ongoing gang war in Brighton Park and Back of the Yards.

In other shootings last week:

• A woman was killed and two people were wounded in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood Sunday evening on the Southwest Side. About 8:20 p.m., they were sitting inside a parked vehicle in the 6000 block of South Richmond when a man got out of a silver vehicle and fired shots, according to police. The woman, identified as 42-year-old Catherine Barnett, was struck in the head and was pronounced dead at the scene. Barnett lived on the same block as the shooting. A 37-year-old man was shot in the chest, and was taken in serious condition to Stroger Hospital, police said. A bullet grazed a third person in the nose, but they refused treatment and were uncooperative with officers, police said.

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At least 12 people were killed last week in Chicago, including a pair of teenage boys, and three people who were killed while standing out a home on the Far South Side.

A 14-year-old boy was fatally shot Tuesday afternoon in the South Chicago neighborhood. Just after 5 p.m., he was standing on the sidewalk in the 8000 block of South Manistee when another person walked up, pulled a weapon and fired shots, according to Chicago Police.

The boy, identified as Melvin James, suffered gunshot wounds to the abdomen and left leg, and was taken Comer Children’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2 a.m. Wednesday, police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. He lived in the same neighborhood where he was shot.

A day earlier, a 15-year-old boy was shot to death during an argument in the Southwest Side Lawndale neighborhood. Antwon Green was on the sidewalk at 7:49 p.m. in front of a home in the 1500 block of South Drake when he started arguing with a group of people, according to police and the medical examiner’s office.

During the argument, someone pulled out a gun and shot him in the back, police said. Green was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later, authorities said.

The mass shooting occurred Saturday night when two women and a man were shot to death in outside one of the victim’s homes in Roseland. The group was standing behind a parked vehicle about 11:40 p.m. when two people came out of an alley near the 11400 block of South Yale and fired multiple shots, according to police and the medical examiner’s office.
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At least 8 people were killed in Chicago the week of August 28-Septmerber 03, including four on the first three days of the long Labor Day holiday weekend.

The final homicide of the week was also the 470th in the city this year, well below the same date in 2016, when the 500th homicide of the year was recorded on Sept. 4, according to Chicago Sun-Times records.

This year’s 470th homicide came Sunday night, when one man was killed and another wounded in a shooting in the Belmont Central neighborhood on the Northwest Side. Felipe Bautista Jr., 26, and a 29-year-old man were standing on the sidewalk about 10:40 p.m. outside Bautista’s home in the 5900 block of West Belden when a male suspect walked up and opened fire, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Bautista was shot in the torso, and was pronounced dead at the scene less than 20 minutes later, authorities said. He lived about a block away from the shooting. The older man was shot in the abdomen and taken in critical condition to Illinois Masonic Medical Center, police said.

In other homicides last week:

• Another man was shot to death Sunday night in a vehicle in the Washington Heights neighborhood on the Far South Side. Former Julian High School football player Jeremy Tang, 20, was found suffering from a gunshot wound to the chest about 8:40 p.m. in the driver’s seat of a vehicle in the 800 block of West 102nd Street, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Tang, who lived in the Beverly neighborhood and attended Miles College in Alabama, was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead at 9:53 p.m.

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By JEFF MAYES
Homicide Watch Chicago

At least 11 people were killed in Chicago during the week of August 21-27, including two teenage boys; a homeless man who was beaten to death, a crime for which two men are in custody; and a woman who was shot 12 times in broad daylight in Logan Square.

A 16-year-old boy was shot to death Saturday in the East Garfield Park neighborhood whle walking home from visiting his infant son.

Theotis Luckett was shot in the back about 3:45 a.m. in the 3600 block of West Ohio, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. He was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead an hour-and-a-half later.

He lived in the Pulaski Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side, authorities said. Family members said he was returning home after visiting his newborn son when he became the third person shot in the neighborhood in about five hours.

The other teenage boy was killed by an off-duty Chicago Fire Department lieutenant, who claimed the teen tried to steal his car Monday morning in the West Side Austin neighborhood. Police are investigating the shooting as a case of self-defense.
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By JEFF MAYES
Homicide Watch Chicago

At least 19 people died from violence the week of August 14-20 in Chicago, but it could have worse, as a mass shooting early Sunday in West Pullman killed one person, and left six others injured.

The Far South Side shooting occurred about 2:30 a.m., while the group was in the parking lot as the weekly dance party was breaking up at the Universal Entertainment Center in the 11900 block of South Loomis. A man in a black SUV opened fire, according to Chicago Police. The SUV then sped away, and two officer who witnessed the shooting, but lost the vehicle on the expressway.

Kolby Craig, 33, was shot in the head and was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:35 a.m., police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. He lived in Englewood. A 30-year-old man was shot in the left leg; a 31-year-old woman was shot in the left leg; a 32-year-old woman was shot in the right leg; a 32-year-old man was shot in the abdomen; a 33-year-old woman was shot in the left leg; and a 36-year-old man was shot in the buttocks, police said.

Three people were taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, while two others were taken to Stroger Hospital, said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford. They were all listed in serious-to-critical condition. A seventh person was shot and taken to MetroSouth Medical Center in Blue Island. That person was in fair-to-serious condition.

An eighth person, a 40-year-old man, was struck by the shooter’s vehicle and suffered a broken right ankle, police said. He was taken to Christ, where his condition stabilized. The owner of the banquet hall has voluntarily closed the property.

In other shootings last week:

• A man was killed and two other people wounded in a shooting Sunday evening in the Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side. They were on a porch about 6:25 p.m. in the 3000 block of West Polk when an SUV drove by and someone inside opened fire, according to police. Damian Rowdan, 22, was shot in the head and was pronounced dead at the scene, the medical examiner’s office said. He lived in the East Garfield Park neighborhood. A 17-year-old boy was shot in both legs and was taken in good condition to Mount Sinai Hospital, police said. An 18-year-old man was shot in the right thigh and was taken in good condition to Stroger Hospital.

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By JEFF MAYES
Homicide Watch Chicago

Another 17 people died from violence in Chicago the week of August 7-13, including seven killed on a bloody Sunday that included a triple homicide and a double homicide, one of which is being investigated as a case of self-defense and the other occurring on the front steps of a church as services were getting under way.

Celeste “CeCe” Cockriel and her cousins, Narcisco “Kiko” Ledesma and Antonio “AJ” Lopez, were fatally shot at a home in the East Side neighborhood on the Far South Side Sunday. The homeowner who shot them claims they were breaking in and the shootings were in self-defense. Detectives initially questioned that man to confirm the story, but released him without charges on Wednesday, according to Chicago Police.

A police source said the 31-year-old, who has a valid Firearm Owner’s Identification card, claimed he shot the three after they broke into his home. Area South detectives continue to investigate the shootings, which were ruled homicides.

Ledesma, 22, of North Austin; Lopez, 17, of East Chicago, Ind.; and Cockriel, 24, of Humboldt Park, all suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the body at 5:30 p.m. in the 10200 block of South Ewing, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. All three were pronounced dead at the scene.

About six hours earlier, two men were killed in a shooting outside a church in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side. Emmanuel Fleming, 34, and Michael Swift, 46, were walking up the front steps of Friendship Baptist Church when they were gunned down in broad daylight, with Fleming’s young children watching.
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By JEFF MAYES
Homicide Watch Chicago

It may not seem like much of a victory, but only eight people were killed in Chicago last week, making it one of the least violent weeks of the entire year.

Statistics compiled by Homicide Watch Chicago show that there have only been four weeks in 2017 when less than 8 people were shot, and the last time it happened was way back in May.

Two of those killing may not be considered homicides by police, but rather cases of self-defense.

A 33-year-old man was killed Sunday morning in a domestic-related shooting in the Clearing neighborhood on the Southwest Side, and police seem to be treating it as a case of self-defense.

At 5:18 a.m., a 30-year-old woman was being battered by Damien Hernandez in the 6900 block of West 65th Street when she pulled out a gun and shot him three times, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Hernandez was pronounced dead at the scene. The woman was initially taken into custody and police said charges were pending. However, on Tuesday, police said the woman had been released and no charges had been filed.

Similarly, after a Wisconsin man died Sunday night after he was shot the previous day in the East Garfield Park neighborhood on the West Side, a person of ointerest was released without charges.
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By JEFF MAYES
Homicide Watch Chicago

At least 14 people were killed last week as Chicago passed the 400-homicide mark for the year nearly a week ahead of last year’s pace, when the homicides numbers were the highest in two decades. The victims included a mother shot while walking with her young son, and a man stabbed to death in a luxury apartment, a crime which has sparked a nationwide manhunt.

When Kennatay K. Leavell was shot to death early Friday near the former Cabrini-Green public housing projects on the Near North Side, it was the city’s 400th homicide of the year.

But before the day was over, two more homicides had been reported that happened earlier, and by Aug. 1, the date when the 400th homicide of 2016 was reported, there had been at least 410 this year, according to Sun-Times data.

Add in five people shot dead by on-duty Chicago Police officers; the deaths of 10 people ruled homicides due to wounds suffered in years past; four people charged with reckless homicide over motor vehicle-involved fatalities; and a man charged with murder in a case where autopsy results are still pending, and the number grows even higher.

Of those killings, about 380 have been with guns, the data shows. Fifteen people were stabbed to death, nine were abused or assaulted, two were strangled, three were intentionally hit by vehicles, and one was forced to ingest bleach.

The total included a woman killed in a shooting that also injured her 4-year-old son and a man Friday evening in the West Side Austin neighborhood. The shooting happened at 5:19 p.m. in the 5200 block of West Kamerling, police said. Nikia Betts, 28, was walking down an alley with her son and the man when shots rang out, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. She was shot in the head and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where she died at 5:54 p.m., according to police and the medical examiner’s office. The boy and 19-year-old man were both shot in the arm, police said. They were taken to Stroger Hospital in good condition.
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By JEFF MAYES
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Leroy Moore was a 70-year-old retiree who lived on the Far South Side. Damijwan Bonds and Anthony White were 18-year-olds who lived on the South Side. You might not think they had much in common, and the likely didn’t. Except they were both homicide victims in Chicago.

The three were among 15 more people who died violently in the city last week, bringing the total ever closer to 400 for the year (a landmark reached on Thursday night) and ahead of last year’s total of nearly 800, highest in two decades.

Moore was walking home from a store about 8:20 p.m. Tuesday in the 7100 block of South State when two cars sped past with people inside firing shots at each other, Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. Moore, of Jeffery Manor, suffered a gunshot wound to the chest and was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead 30 minutes later.

Moore’s nephew, former UIC head basketball coach Howard Moore, said on social media that he was “stunned and devastated” when he learned his uncle was killed in “gang crossfire.”

Bonds man shot to death Sunday night in the Back of the Yards neighborhood. He suffered gunshot wounds to both legs about 9 p.m. in the 5400 block of South Damen, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. He showed up at Holy Cross Hospital, where he was pronounced dead an hour later, authorities said. He lived about three blocks away from the shooting.
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