17-year-old George Anderson killed in East Garfield Park drive-by shooting

Seventeen-year-old George Anderson died about 12 hours after being shot in an East Garfield Park drive-by Thursday evening on the West Side.

Anderson was walking in the 3000 block of West Harrison about 5:30 p.m. when an SUV pulled up and someone inside shot him in the back and abdomen, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Anderson was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he died at 6:08 a.m. Friday, authorities said. He lived in the 3400 block of West Flournoy.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

18-year-old Antonio Pollards fatally shot while walking in Austin

An 18-year-old man shot and killed Wednesday morning in the West Side Austin neighborhood has been identified as Antonio Pollards.

He was walking westbound in the 4600 block of West Madison Street about 9:30 a.m. when someone opened fire from a passing vehicle, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Pollards suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he died at 10:05 a.m., authorities said. He lived in the 1400 block of South Drake.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

19-year-old Michael Fernandez shot to death in Little Village

Michael L. Fernandez was shot to death Thursday evening in the Little Village neighborhood.

The 19-year-old was standing on the sidewalk in the 2600 block of South Harding about 6:20 p.m. when he was shot in the head, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Fernandez, of the 1600 block of South California, was taken to Saint Anthony Hospital, where he was pronounced dead 15 minutes later, authorities said.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Daryl Lee found not guilty of 2014 fatal shooting of 16-year-old Marquise Harris at party in Woodlawn

Daryl Lee | Chicago Police

Daryl Lee | Chicago Police

By JORDAN OWEN
Chicago Sun-Times

A man was found not guilty Monday of the murder of 16-year-old Marquise Harris in the South Side Woodlawn neighborhood in 2014.

Daryl Lee was found not guilty Wednesday after a three-day trial before Judge Vincent Gaughn, according to Cook County court records.

Authorities claimed Lee used a .45 caliber handgun to fatally shoot Harris in the chest about 11:15 p.m. Jan. 11, 2014, during a party in a second-floor apartment in the 6200 block of South St. Lawrence Avenue.

Harris was arguing with his girlfriend when Lee, who was a friend of the woman, intervened, police said.

Lee left the gathering, but later returned and shot Harris in the chest, authorities alleged. He was arrested in May 2014 in Des Moines, Iowa.

Harris, who lived on the same block where he was shot, died at Stroger Hospital, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Lee had been held in the Cook County Jail without bond since his arrest.

Mother of man killed in gun violence still looking for answers, and support for women in her position

Cortez Bailey was fatally shot near his South Shore home on June 26, 2013, and his mother is still looking for answers. | photo provided

Cortez Bailey was fatally shot near his South Shore home on June 26, 2013, and his mother is still looking for answers. | photo provided

By KRISTEN TORRES
Homicide Watch Chicago

The New Year often brings along a sense of renewal–people begin to plan for their future, begin an exercise regime, quit smoking–but for some, the holiday is only reminder for those they’ve lost.

Cortez Bailey of the 7600 block of South Kingston Avenue was 23 years old when he was shot and killed in broad daylight on the morning of June 26, 2013.

“I got a call from my granddaughter, ‘Papy’s been shot,’ she said. The walls closed in on me at that moment,” Meme Bailey, Cortez Bailey’s mother, said.

He was shot in the chest, police said, though the circumstances surrounding his murder were never solved, according to Chicago Sun-Times reports.

“He liked to be outside,” Bailey recalled. “He was a laid-back guy; he trusted people a lot.”
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Former De La Salle star athlete Elliott Brown killed, woman injured in shooting on Chicago Skyway

De La Salle's Elliott Brown drives against Loyola in 2007. | File Photo by Scott Powers/for the Sun-Times

De La Salle’s Elliott Brown drives against Loyola in 2007. | File Photo by Scott Powers/for the Sun-Times

By SAM CHARLES, JORDAN OWEN AND ANDREW GRIMM
Chicago Sun-Times

Former De La Salle High School basketball and football star Elliott Brown was killed and a woman wounded in a shooting Wednesday afternoon on the Chicago Skyway bridge over the Calumet River.

Brown, 25, was driving a BMW coupe southbound on the Skyway (I-90) about 1:30 p.m. when it was approached by a black SUV as it crossed the bridge, authorities said.

Someone in the SUV opened fire, striking Brown multiple times. A 23-year-old woman passenger was shot in the left arm, police said. The SUV then continued southbound.

Brown of the 4000 block of South Calumet, was dead at the scene, police said.
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Phillip Dupree was killed and his grandmother was injured in an Auburn Gresham shooting

Phillip Dupree was killed and his 62-year-old grandmother seriously wounded Wednesday afternoon in a shooting in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood on the South Side.

Both victims were shot in the head in the 7900 block of South Laflin about 2:50 p.m., according to Chicago Police.

The woman was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in serious condition. The 26-year-old Dupree, who lived in the 3400 block of West 76th Place, was pronounced dead at the scene, according police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Gang member charged with 2013 fatal shooting of Alexander Lagunas in Little Village

By RUMMANA HUSSAIN
Chicago Sun-Times

Ruddy Miguel | Chicago Police

Ruddy Miguel | Chicago Police

Alexander Lagunas thought he was being greeted by a fellow Two-Six gang member when a silver Chevy Tahoe pulled up with Ruddy Miguel inside.

But when Miguel rolled down the window and flashed a Two-Six sign at the intersection of 31st Street and Pulaski Road on June 17, 2013, he was just bluffing, Cook County prosecutors said Wednesday.

Miguel, a member of the rival Latin Kings, pointed a gun at Lagunas’ car and pulled the trigger seven times while yelling “King Love,” Assistant State’s Attorney April Gonzales said.

Lagunas, 18, died at Mount Sinai Hospital a day later.

A 22-year-old woman, who was a friend of Lagunas’ girlfriend, was also shot in the abdomen while she sat in the backseat of Lagunas’ car, Gonzales said. She survived. Lagunas’ girlfriend, who was in the front passenger seat, also survived.
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Judge says 16-year-old boy charged with killing Donta Parker and Sakinah Reed is a ‘danger to the community’

By RUMMANA HUSSAIN
Chicago Sun-Times

A 16-year-old boy was ordered held without bond Wednesday for allegedly killing Donta Parker and Sakinah Reed, and wounding a third teen while the trio of victims was walking home from school in Grand Crossing last week.

Anthony Murphy, already on probation for a weapons case, gunned down Parker, 16, and Reed, 17, from a green Ford Explorer in the 7500 block of South Dorchester Avenue on Jan. 5, Cook County prosecutors said in court Wednesday.

The SUV was driven by another juvenile co-offender, Assistant State’s Attorney Brian Whang said, though Murphy allegedly told detectives he was the driver at the time of the deadly incident.

Whang said Murphy shouted gang slogans before he started firing from behind the driver’s seat of the Explorer about 3:30 p.m.
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16-year-old boy charged with fatal shootings of Sakinah Reed and Donta Parker in Grand Crossing

By MITCHELL ARMENTROUT
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

A 16-year-old boy has been charged as an adult with killing South Side teenagers Donta Parker and Sakinah Reed, and wounding a third teen in a Grand Crossing neighborhood drive-by shooting last week.

Anthony Murphy faces two counts of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated battery with a firearm for the attack that happened about 3:30 p.m. Jan. 5, the Cook County state’s attorney’s office and Chicago Police announced.
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