Chicago’s violence comes to a boil
Twelve shot dead, dozens hurt. One 3-hour period recorded thirty victims
Near a laundromat, gunfire sent the children inside running to the bathroom to hide.
After a funeral meal, mourners in a courtyard were sprayed with gunfire. The injured included four teenage girls.
At a block party providing distraction from the weekend heat wave Jahnae Patterson, 17, was shot in the face and killed.
Scenes like this unfolded over and over again in Chicago over the course of a exceptionally violent weekend in a city that has recently seen some progress in reducing shootings and gun deaths.
From Friday at 6 p.m. through Sunday at 11:59 p.m., 66 people were shot, 12 of whom died.
The count served as a stark reminder that the root causes of Chicago’s notorious crime problem have yet to be addressed, community members and city officials said.
John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital on the city’s west side was so busy that all but immediate family members were forced to wait outside for updates on their wounded loved ones.
“You could just feel the grief,” said Eric Russell, a community activist who visited them. “You had people crying and just laying down on concrete.”
The violence reached a peak early Sunday, when 30 people were shot during a three-hour span between midnight and 3 a.m., an average of one every five minutes or so. Eight of the shooting incidents during that period had three or more victims.
The terse, jargonish police log entries, summarized below, reflect some stark realities about Chicago’s crime plague. Twenty-eight of the 30 victims were Black; the other two were Hispanic; 11 were minors.
The most intense burst of violence began just after midnight:
12:02 a.m. Two men in a passing white Impala fire shots into the crowd at a block party on South Avers Avenue, hitting a 13-year-old boy twice in the arm, a 16-year-old boy in the buttocks, and a 25-year-old man in the leg; a 17-year-old girl is grazed in the arm and knee. Four wounded.
12:05 a.m. Shots fired from another vehicle hit a 20-yearold woman in the stomach as she is driving on West Altgeld Street. One wounded.
12:23 a.m. An 18-year-old man suffers several gunshot wounds to the body; the police officers who respond to the scene on West Cullerton Street are not able to learn the circumstances. One wounded.
12:39 a.m. Several men approach a group of people standing in a courtyard on West 76th Street and open fire. A 17-yearold girl, a 19-year-old man, a 21year-old woman are each hit in the leg. Another 17-year-old girl is hit in the knee; an 18-year-old man is hit in the buttocks; a 19-year-old woman and a 14year-old girl are hit in the hand. A 35-year-old man is grazed in the head. Eight wounded.
12:50 a.m. A brief gun battle erupts on North Karlov Avenue. Two people in a black Cadillac shoot and wound three people on the street: a 30-yearold woman in the calf, a 30year-old man in the calf and ankle, and a 29-year-old man in the chest. Return fire caused the car to crash; the occupants fled on foot. A 43-year-old man walking down the street was caught in the crossfire and hit in the thigh. Four wounded.
1:03 a.m. A 26-year-old man walking with another man on South Paulina Street is hit twice by shots fired from a white Jeep. The man is taken to a hospital in critical condition and dies there. The Jeep is found abandoned and on fire five blocks from the shooting scene. One killed. 1:30 a.m. A 26-year-old man standing on the sidewalk on South Keeler Street is hit in the leg by shots fired from a white sedan. He goes to the UIC Medical Center on his own for treatment. One wounded. 2:26 a.m. Women standing on a front porch are caught in the crossfire when two groups of men begin shooting at each other on West Gladys Avenue: a 29-year-old woman is hit in the back; a 28-year-old in the arm; and a 41-year-old in the thigh. Three wounded. 2:34 a.m. Two men approach a group of young people standing on the sidewalk on South Millard Avenue and open fire. A 17-year-old girl is shot in the face and is pronounced dead at the scene. Three boys, 11, 14 and 17, are each hit in the leg; another 17-year-old girl is hit in the arm, and a 21-year-old woman is hit in the back and arm. One killed, five wounded.
2:50 a.m. A 14-year-old boy on South Pulaski Road suffers a gunshot wound to the leg. He tells police that he heard shots and felt one hit him but did not know where they came from. One wounded.