75 shot, 2 charged: Violent August weekend as Chicago police struggle
At least 12 killed in first weekend in August
CHICAGO — It was a chance encounter between two acquaintances in a Menards parking lot, but enough for a 2-year-old dispute over $700 to boil over into gunfire.
Now Antonio Macedo is facing charges of attempted first-degree murder. That makes him just the second person arrested and charged so far with firing a gun during an August weekend that saw 75 people shot.
At least 12 people were killed and 63 others were wounded — the most violent weekend in the city in at least two years. More than 30 were shot in just six attacks as gunmen targeted large groups at a block party and other outdoor gatherings.
The Tribune is examining that first weekend of August, hoping to shed light on the challenges authorities face in solving crime, as well as the impact unsolved shootings may have on the city’s ongoing cycle of violence. Tribune reporters have logged every shooting from that weekend and are continuing to compare those records with ones the city maintains of both incidents and arrests.
What little progress detectives have made has come from unusual breaks, illustrating how hard much of Chicago’s violent crime has been to solve. The department’s crime-solving rate — known as the clearance rate — for homicides was about 17 percent last year. For shootings that were not fatal, the rate was even more dismal.
The longer the other cases go without an arrest, the tougher it will be to solve them. Experts in law enforcement say the first 48 to 72 hours are when the most progress is usually made. It has been five weeks since August started so explosively.
As detailed by the Tribune last month, police relied heavily on technology to file the first charges against a shooting suspect from the weekend. Cameras not only captured the shooting aftermath, but they also tracked the suspect’s car until officers spotted it and took someone into custody.
Macedo was charged thanks to something that can be almost as rare: a victim who cooperates.
Guillermo Botello, 62, says he gave police a statement and identified Macedo as his attacker. Macedo made a confession and was charged, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
But the cooperation came in a conflict that is not typical of the gun violence police are struggling to solve. Both the victim and the suspect are older than most shooting victims in the city. And the attack was over a personal dispute involving money.
This was not street retaliation, the kind of violence engulfing thousands of men in hundreds of gangs who are perpetually settling scores over everything from drug territory to insults, both real and imagined.
The August weekend violence reflects the struggle police face in getting victims to talk to them: In addition to the charges that have been filed, the department reported progress on just three other cases.