By JEFFMAYES
Chicago Sun-Times Wire
At least 16 people were killed in violence in Chicago last week as the city’s homicide total passed the 100 mark less than two months into the year. The week’s victim included an engaged couple and their unborn child, and a baby who had survived 5 months after her mother died in another shooting last fall.
The 100th and 101st reported homicides of the year happened early Saturday in the Woodlawn neighborhood as 2017 kept pace with the homicide total of 2016, which ended with nearly 800, the most in two decades.
Just before 1 a.m., two people in hooded sweatshirts opened fire into a crowd at a party in the 6500 block of South Drexel, hitting 20-year-old Lance A. Jefferson in the face and torso; and 37-year-old Samuel D. Head in the chest, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Jefferson, of the Washington Park neighborhood; and Head, who lived on the same block as the shooting, died at the scene, authorities said. Additionally, a 29-year-old woman suffered a graze wound to the thigh and was taken in good condition to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. No one was in custody for the shooting. Read more
At least 19 people died from violence in one of the deadliest weeks of the year across Chicago. The victims included an 11-year-old girl caught in crossfire while playing near a South Side school; a 12-year-old girl shot while sitting in a relative’s van; and a 2-year-old boy killed when gang members fatally shot his uncle.
The 19 deaths, including the three young children, were the highest weekly total of the year so far in Chicago, matching the total from the week of Jan. 15-21. At least five homicides were reported in one day twice last week.
“One victim of one shooting is one too many, but when innocent children are caught in the crossfire of gun violence and young people have their childhood stolen by stray bullets, our consciences are shaken and our hearts are broken,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement Tuesday.
The 11-year-old girl died at Comer Children’s Hospital on Tuesday morning after being struck in the head by a stray bullet on Saturday night. Takiya Holmes was sitting in a van in the 6500 block of South King Drive when she was struck by what police believe was a stray bullet, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. She died about 8 a.m Tuesday after being on life support since the shooting. Read more
By JEFFMAYES
Chicago Sun-Times Wire
It was another violent week in Chicago, with at least 10 people killed last week, including three in the West Austin neighborhood alone.
The death toll included a 2-month-old girl whose death in the Humboldt Park neighborhood was ruled a homicide by child abuse; and a popular local rapper killed after getting into a fight on a CTA Green Line train near downtown.
Family members took the baby, Aliya Acosta, to a hospital on Jan. 17 after she became unresponsive in her home, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. She was later transferred to Lurie Children’s Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 2:04 a.m. Thursday.
An autopsy Friday found she died from multiple injuries caused by child abuse, and the death was ruled a homicide, according to the medical examiner’s office.
An Illinois Department of Children and Family Services spokeswoman said the agency is investigating allegations of abuse against the girl’s mother, father and other caregivers; while Area North detectives are conducting a death investigation.
The rapper was stabbed to death Wednesday afternoon near Metra tracks in the Fulton River District. Walter Long Jr., 24, got into a fight with someone who pulled out a sharp object about 3:20 p.m. in the 400 block of North Clinton, police and the medical examiner’s office said. Read more
Three teenage boys were among 8 people were killed last week as the death toll from homicides in Chicago neared 60 just five weeks into the new year.
The shooting last week brought the homicide total to 57, and it reached 60 with a fatal stabbing on Tuesday night, according to Chicago Sun-Times records. The numbers actually show a slight decrease since 2016, when the 60th homicide was recorded on Feb. 2, six days earlier.
One of the teens, 15-year-old honor student Willie Woodus was shot and killed Friday evening as he walked home from Fenger High School in the Roseland neighborhood on the Far South Side. Just after 5 p.m., the boy was walking in an alley in the 11400 block of South Stewart when a gray Pontiac drove by and someone inside opened fire, hitting him in the head, chest and abdomen, Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. Woodus was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead an hour later, authorities said.
About eight hours later, another 15-year-old boy, Clavonte Eubanks, died after being shot early Saturday in the Jeffery Manor neighborhood on the Far South Side. At 3:27 a.m., the teen was walking through a park in the 2100 block of East 97th Street when he heard gunshots and felt pain in his chest, police said. He ran to a home in the 2200 block of East 97th Street, where someone called an ambulance. Eubanks suffered a gunshot wound to the upper-right chest and was taken by emergency crews to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he died less than an hour later. He lived in the same neighborhood where he was shot. Read more
By JORDANOWEN and JEFFMAYES
Chicago Sun-Times Wire
Another 10 people died from violence last week in Chicago as Chicago Police Department efforts to curtail violence—after a year in which homicides reached levels not seen in decades—seem to be falling short so far.
One month into the new year, the numbers of shootings and homicides in the city are nearly identical to the first month of 2016.
As of Jan. 31, Chicago had recorded 53 homicides in 2017 — two more than in January 2016, according to a Chicago Sun-Times list compiled using Cook County medical examiner’s and other public records.
The number of shooting victims also remained nearly identical. A total of 292 people were shot last January in 242 incidents. So far this year, just over 300 people have been shot in about 240 incidents.
Both 2016 and 2017 showed a marked increase in violence from January 2015, when there were 29 homicides in Chicago.
Police and Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration are implementing several anti-violence initiatives this year, including hiring additional officers, funding economic-growth programs, and providing support and mentorship for young men in violent neighborhoods. Read more
By JEFFMAYES
Chicago Sun-Times Wire
Two teenage boys were among at least 19 people who died last week as a result of violence in Chicago last week, as the epidemic of gunfire continued to take its toll.
While 2016 saw the most murders in Chicago in more than two decades, 2017 is starting off on an even bloodier pace. The death toll is already at 43 and more than 230 people have been shot in just over three weeks. Last year there were a total of 50 murders for the entire month.
Two of last week’s victims were boys, both killed by gunfire in the South Side Englewood neighborhood.
Diabolique Anderson, 16, died Friday, two days after officers found him about 4:45 p.m. Wednesday on a sidewalk in the 6800 block of South Green, according to CHicago POlice and Cook County medical examiner’s office. He had suffered gunshot wounds to the head and thigh. Witnesses saw four male suspects take off in a black SUV after the shooting. Anderson was pronounced dead at 2:28 p.m. Friday at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
One day earlier, 15-year-old Bruce Marshawn Owens was shot to death Thursday night. Shortly before 9 p.m., someone walked up to him in the 6900 block of South Stewart, shot him repeatedly in the chest and abdomen, and then took off in a dark-colored vehicle, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Owens was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, where he died at 11:39 p.m.
A 19-year-old man died Sunday, more than six months after he was shot while allegedly robbing a man in the Portage Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side. About 11:40 p.m. June 30, 2016, a 28-year-old man was in his vehicle in the 4000 block of North Laporte when he was approached by a man with a gun who tried to rob him, according to police. Read more
At least 14 people died from violence in Chicago last week, including a young mother who died from injuries suffered in a shooting last summer near her West Side home that left her paralyzed for the last seven months of her life.
Precious Land, 27, was shot about 8 p.m. May 28 as she drove home in the 3900 block of West Lexington in the Lawndale neighborhood, Chicago Police said at the time.
Land, who lived a block from where she was shot, died at 9:24 p.m. Friday at Mount Sinai Hospital, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
On the night she was killed, the start of Memorial Day weekend, Land had just dropped off her four children at a friend’s home, family members said on Facebook. Just one block west of Land’s home, she suffered a gunshot wound to the neck and was initially taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition.
Land, a mother of four, was left in a coma and paralyzed, family and friends said on Facebook. She eventually came out of the coma and was taken home from the hospital, but remained paralyzed until she passed away.
The week’s final homicide was a man fatally shot Sunday morning in the East Garfield Park neighborhood on the West Side. At 5:30 a.m., officers responding to a call of a person down found 26-year-old Timothy Wade unresponsive on the sidewalk in the 2600 block of West Van Buren, according to police. Wade, who lived on the same block, was shot in the head and was pronounced dead at the scene.
By JEFFMAYES
Chicago Sun-Times Wire
At least eight people were killed in Chicago violence last week, including two brothers and a pair of teenage boys, all of whom died after a pair of shootings on the West Side.
The boys were killed in a drive-by shooting that also left a 65-year-old woman was wounded Tuesday afternoon in the East Garfield Park neighborhood.
Sixteen-year-old Malik McNeese and a 17-year-old Stevie Jefferson were on a sidewalk about noon in the 3400 block of West Fulton when a black SUV pulled up. Someone in the vehicle opened fire, hitting the younger boy in the head, back and arm; and the older boy in the head, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
McNeese was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead; while Jefferson died after being taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, authorities said.
A stray bullet went through the front door of a home on the block, hitting the 65-year-old woman in the leg. She was taken to Mount Sinai in good condition, police said.
About 12 hours later, the brothers were fatally shot in the Homan Square neighborhood Tuesday night. Officers responding at 11:13 p.m. to a call of shots fired in the 3200 block of West Lexington found the pair lying in the street, police said. Read more
The calendar turned from 2016 to 2017, and the temperatures took a downward spike, but nothing seemed to slow the pace of the killings in CHicago, as at least 13 people were killed in violence last week in Chicago.
The year ended with at least 780 homicides (762 by the Chicago Police method of counting) in Chicago, according to Chicago Sun-Times records. Another 12 people died in 2016 of injuries suffered in shootings or assaults in prior years, and another 11 were killed by police officers.
That was the highest total in more than 20 years. And the first day of 2017 saw another three fatal shootings, including two men who apparently shot each other to death inside a North Side business.
The shootout Sunday morning in an Uptown neighborhood business left Maurice Delaney and Ali Mohamed dead, the first reported homicides of 2017, authorities said. The men were shooting at each other about 4:25 a.m. New Year’s Day inside a business in the 4600 block of North Broadway, according to police. Read more
By JEFFMAYES
Chicago Sun-Times Wire
The week started out with longest period of time without a fatal shooting in the city all year, but it ended with bloody holiday weekend that ended with at least 14 people dead from violence in Chicago.
The city saw a peaceful period from early Sunday morning until Thursday afternoon, a period of over 4 1/2 days without a fatal shooting. Then came the Christmas holiday, which was anything but peaceful, with at least 11 people killed and dozens of others shot.
When it was all over, 14 people were killed last week, bring the year’s total to over 780, including about a dozen who died this year after being shot or assaulted in previous years, according to Sun-Times Wire record.
The horrific holiday weekend ended with a mass shooting in the East Chatham neighborhood that left two bothers dead and five other people wounded, two of them critically.
It happened Christmas night about 9:20 p.m., when people were gathered for a family party on the porch of a home in the 8600 block of South Maryland. Someone wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt walked out from an adjacent alley and opened fire, according to Chicago Police. The shooter then ran away. Read more
What is Homicide Watch Chicago?
Homicide Watch Chicago is dedicated to the proposition that murder is never a run-of-the-mill story. Attention must be paid to each one, not merely a select and particularly tragic few. We understand the reality of the public’s demand for news - that some stories get more attention than others. But all murders represent a degree of human suffering - direct and indirect - that cannot be ignored. Read more…
