17 dead, 41 wounded in Chicago weekend shootings
CHICAGO (WLS) -- A violent weekend in Chicago has left 17 people dead and 41 others wounded since Friday evening, Chicago police said.
Among the victims weretwin 17-year-old boys who were killed in a shooting Sunday morning in the Old Town neighborhood, police said.
Police said the brothers were leaving the Marshall Field Homes in the 1300-block of North Hudson Avenue at about 3:15 a.m. when a dark-colored vehicle drove by and someone inside opened fire, police said.
Edwin Bryant was shot in the chest and back and his twin brother Edward was shot in the chest and head, police said. They were both transported to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where they died.
The Bryants are not documented gang members, but investigators said the area where the shootings took place is a gang conflict area.
"Nobody deserves to be gunned down in the street," said Vince Carter, the twins' basketball coach.
Coach Carter knew both twins from the Chicago Demons, a neighborhood youth basketball team. Edwin no longer played, but Edward did.
"We won at a tournament in Houston. He was an integral part of the team that won. He was starting to get a couple of looks as he went into his junior year. He was excited about that," Carter said.
"They were very skilled and really wanted to become professional athletes one day," said their stepmother Donnesha Coleman.
The Leaders Network held a vigil and issued a plea for information to find the twins' killer Monday night.
"Chicago is experiencing a blood bath of epic proportions and there seems to be no real solutions being offered to stop the carnage," Acree said.
On Saturday night, two women were shot inside a popular restaurant in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood, police said.
A masked man opened fire inside the Jamaican Jerk Villa in the 700-block of West 79th Street at about 8:38 p.m, police said. Two women were shot, a customer and a worker. Both are expected to be OK.
Afterwards, a group of people fed up with the violence in the city gathered outside the restaurant to rally for change.
"Total silence was honor among thieves, not honor among murderers, honor among shooters," said crisis responder Dawn Valenti. "It's not normal and I am not going to accept it as normal and nobody should accept it as normal because if we accept it as normal it's going to continue."
The restaurant does have security cameras that were working at the time of the shooting that could provide some clues.
MORE THAN 200 CHICAGO POLICE OFFICERS GRADUATE
On Monday, 223 officers graduated from the police academy to help combat violence in the city. In addition to the new officers, 21 current officers were promoted to filed officers.
"Every incidence, every encounter between a police officer and a resident of the city of Chicago is a learning experience. How they come away from that experience will determine how they view the police department," Mayor Rahm Emanuel told the graduates.
Superintendent Eddie Johnson said the shootings were mainly gang-related and although more resources were sent to Wrigleyville, other areas were still protected by police.
"It was a tough weekend, but it just goes back to what I have been saying all the time. Listen, until we start holding repeat gun offenders accountable for these crimes, we're going to keep seeing cycles of gun violence like this," he said.
This year, police said 7,000 illegal handguns were taken off the streets. Superintendent Johnson hopes adding more officers will help curb the violence.
It is one of the largest graduating classes this year and one of the most diverse, part of the mayor's plan to expand the Chicago Police Department.
Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin issued a statement, on the violence saying, "The communities most heavily impacted by gun violence in the City of Chicago are nothing short of war zones, and just as in the other war-torn regions of the world, our children are not safe. Demarco Webster, a 14-year-old boy, was helping his father move out of his apartment in South Austin this past weekend when he was struck dead by a stray bullet.
The blood of Demarco and all the innocent children cut down by violence in Chicago cries out for justice. Every day that our City, County, State and Federal leaders fail to take emergency action on this crisis, people die."
Boykin called the implementation of a seven-point plan to curb gun violence including community investment, curfew law enforcement and increased penalties for gun crimes.
The weekend's latest homicide happened shortly after 4 a.m. Monday in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side. A 28-year-old man was found with gunshot wounds to the chest and head on the kitchen floor of a second-floor apartment in the 1100-block of West Garfield, according to Chicago police. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office did not immediately release his name.
A 19-year-old man was killed and a 40-year-old man was wounded in a Near West Side shooting. The men were in a car at 2:59 a.m. in the 2100-block of West Jackson when someone walked up and fired shots in their direction, authorities said. The driver tried to speed away, but their vehicle struck a parked vehicle before coming to a rest. Ricks, of the 1200-block of South Sawyer, suffered several gunshot wounds to the back and was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:38 a.m. The older man was shot in the shoulder and also taken to Stroger, where his condition was stabilized.
At 2:34 a.m., a 24-year-old woman showed up in the 10700-block of South Hoxie in the South Deering neighborhood on the Far South Side and told witnesses she was shot, police said. The woman had suffered a gunshot wound to the body and someone took her to Trinity Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, police said. The medical examiner's office has not yet released her name.
About 1 a.m., officers responded to a call of shots fired in the 7900-block of South Vernon in the South Side Chatham neighborhood and found a man lying on the sidewalk, police said. The man, thought to be between 35 and 45 years old, was shot in the head and chest and pronounced dead at the scene at 1:19 a.m. He has not been identified.
Fifteen minutes earlier in the Humboldt Park neighborhood on the West Side, officers responding to a call of shots fired found a 31-year-old man lying on the sidewalk in the 3400-block of West Hirsch, according to police. He suffered a gunshot wound to the face and was taken to Norwegian American Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His name has not been released.
At 8:05 p.m. Saturday, 19-year-old Luis Corona was shot to death in the Archer Heights neighborhood on the Southwest Side. He was in a parked vehicle in the 4800-block of South Karlov when two males announced a robbery, according to police and the medical examiner's office. Corona tried to escape but was shot in the chest and crashed his vehicle into two parked vehicles at the end of an alley. Corona, who lived in the 6100-block of South Moody, was pronounced dead at the scene at 8:25 p.m.
Less than an hour earlier, a 28-year-old man was sitting in a parked vehicle in an alley in the 8300-block of South Hermitage in the South Side Gresham neighborhood when someone walked up and shot him in the head, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene at 7:45 p.m., according to the medical examiner's office. His name has not yet been released.
About 20 minutes earlier, a 36-year-old man was shot in the Englewood neighborhood and died later Sunday morning. Walter McCurry was standing in the street at 7:23 p.m. Saturday in the 1100-block of West 57th Street, when someone in a dark-colored car fired shots, hitting him in the chest, arm and hip, authorities said. McCurry, who lived in the 6300-block of South Morgan, was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:47 a.m. Sunday.
At 4:50 p.m., a 17-year-old boy was fatally shot in the West Garfield Park neighborhood, authorities said. He was discovered outside in the 200-block of South Kostner with gunshot wounds to his back and leg. The boy was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 5:14 p.m. His name has not been released.
At 1:23 a.m., a 14-year-old boy was gunned down in the West Side Austin neighborhood. DeMarco Webster Jr. was on the street in the 500 block of South Central when someone in a dark-colored car shot him in the torso, authorities said. Webster, who lived in the 700-block of South Kedzie, was taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where he died at 3:15 a.m.
At 12:04 a.m. in the South Side Auburn Gresham neighborhood, someone walked up to 25-year-old Martell Turner as he sat in a vehicle in the 1200 block of West 79th Street and shot him in the chest and abdomen, authorities said. Turner was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead at 1:31 a.m. He lived in the 7900-block of South Throop.
Five minutes before that in the South Shore neighborhood, officers responding to a call of a person shot found 30-year-old Tyrice Anderson lying in the street in the 7800-block of South South Shore Drive, authorities said. Anderson was shot in the head and taken to Christ Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 1:03 a.m. He lived on the same block as the shooting.
About 10:20 p.m. Friday, two people were gunned down at a Back of the Yards neighborhood gas station on the South Side. Chiquita Ford and Brian Fields, both 30 years old, were sitting in a vehicle at the station in the 1900-block of West Garfield when a gunman walked up and fired at them, hitting the woman in the side and the man in the chest, authorities said. They were both pronounced dead at the scene at 11:02 p.m. Ford lived in suburban Westchester and Fields was from the 7200-block of South Wolcott.
The weekend's first homicide happened about 9 p.m. Friday in the West Side Austin neighborhood. Hernando Caster, 38, was on a sidewalk in the 4900-block of West Huron when two gunmen walked up and shot him in the back and thighs, authorities said. Caster, of the 5300-block of West Washington, was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he died at 10:58 p.m.
The latest nonfatal shooting happened shortly after 2 a.m. Monday in the South Chicago neighborhood. A 37-year-old woman was a passenger in a vehicle driving south in the 8000-block of South Exchange when she heard gunfire and realized she'd been shot in the left shoulder, police said. She later showed up at South Shore Hospital, where her condition was stabilized.
At least 39 more people were wounded in other shootings across the city between 4:45 p.m. Friday and 9:15 p.m. Sunday.
Seventeen fatal shootings makes the weekend the city's deadliest of 2016, according to Sun-Times data. Over both Father's Day and Labor Day weekends in Chicago this year, 13 people were wounded in shootings.
On Monday, Aug. 9, nine people were killed in city shootings and 13 others were wounded.
The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.
