Police: Gangs’ guns pierce body armor
Chicago on alert day after 10 shot
CHICAGO — A day after 10 people were shot at a memorial in Chicago’s Brighton Park neighborhood, police officers in the area were being warned Monday about a “heightened presence” of gang members armed with “numerous” military-style rifles capable of piercing bulletproof vests.
Extra gang and tactical teams have been deployed in the Southwest Side neighborhood as police investigate the mass shooting that killed two and wounded eight in the 2600 block of West 46th Place around 5:20 p.m. Sunday. The victims were gathered at a makeshift memorial for a man in his 20s who was killed 12 hours earlier down the block.
Both shootings were done by two men armed with rifles, police said.
Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said on Twitter the incident is “believed to be a gang related retaliation for” the earlier shooting.
In an alert broadcast over police radio channels Monday morning, officers were told to “expect a heightened presence of Satan Disciples — that’s an increase in activity for [Satan Disciples] in connection with the shootings yesterday at 46/ Rockwell.”
“Also be aware that this gang is in possession of numerous military-style rifles that are capable of piercing police protection,” it added.
In February, the Chicago Tribune reported that gangs in Brighton Park and Back of the Yards on the South Side were increasingly using rifles. Police said this area was the only one in the city where rifles styled after AR15s and AK-47s were regularly used, a menacing new development in the gang fights.
At the time, more than 30 shootings believed to have been tied to semi-automatic rifles occurred in the two neighborhoods over the previous nine months. At least 46 people were shot in those attacks, 13 fatally.
Sunday’s shootings come five days after two Deering District tactical officers were struck by rifle fire in Back of the Yards, southeast of Brighton Park. Police said investigators so far don’t believe the officers’ shooting is related to what happened over the weekend.
Around 4:30 a.m. Sunday, two men with rifles shot and killed 26-year-old Daniel Cardova in the 2500 block of West 46th Place. His body was found between parked cars on the street, police said.
Throughout the day, a makeshift memorial of heart-shaped balloons, liquor bottles and candles grew down the street. At one point, police warned a group of people gathered there to move on, warning they could be targets, a police source said.
Around 5:20 p.m., two men with rifles stepped from an alley and opened fire on the men and women still standing there, police said.
The two killed at the memorial were a man about 25 and a 29-year-old woman.
Killings at vigils or remembrances for others killed are nothing new in Chicago, where gun violence and particularly gang-related gun violence is spiraling out of control.
In January, seven mourners for a woman killed near a grade school, including a 12year-old boy, were shot.
First Deputy Superintendent Kevin Navarro called the mass shooting “another brazen act of gang violence on Chicago’s streets.”
Another police official, Deputy Chief Kevin Ryan, said investigators “have a fairly good idea who we’re looking for. We have a fairly good idea of the conflict involved. And right now we’re trying to saturate the area.”
As of Monday morning, no one was reported in custody.