66 shot, 12 fatally, in Chicago weekend shootings
CHICAGO (WLS) -- A violent weekend in Chicago left 12 people dead and dozens more wounded, police said.
Chicago police said a total of 66 people were shot from 6 p.m. on Friday to midnight on Sunday and 12 of those victims have died.
STOP THE VIOLENCE: Chicago youth programs, resources
The shootings were concentrated in four police districts on the South and West sides.
Among the victims were a 17-year-old girl shot in the face, and a 17-year-old boy on a bike.
At a press conference Monday morning with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said more needs to be done to hold repeat gun offenders accountable.
"As long as we fail to hold repeat gun offenders accountable for their actions we're going to keep having these discussions on Monday mornings," Johnson said.
Supt. Johnson said they are investigating leads on a number of the shootings, but have not made any arrests in the shootings.
WATCH: Mayor Emanuel, Supt. Johnson react to weekend violence
Johnson stressed the importance of community and police cooperation.
"We are all supposed to be on the same side," he said.
Some residents know this battle against violence will not be won just with policing.
"The police are not going to save us. The city is not going to save us. The cavalry is not coming. The cavalry is us. We have to save each other," said Tama Manasseh, Mothers Against Senseless Killing.
Manesseh is a one-woman cavalry. She sits on the corner of 75th and Stewart in Englewood every day, and has for four years.
"It's a matter of how do we get people to stop being afraid to come out of their homes and to reengage with society," she said. "Once we take ownership of our blocks again, then it changes everything."
Emanuel said he visited Stroger and Mt. Sinai hospitals to thank those that treated the victims of the violence.
"It may not have been in your neighborhood, it may not have been in your community, may not have been on your block. But that neighborhood, that community, that block is in the city of Chicago and it is part of our home," Emanuel said.
Johnson said while CPD can do better, the shooters need to be held accountable.
"I hear people holding us accountable all the time," Johnson said. "I never hear people saying these individuals out here in the streets need to stop pulling the trigger. I never hear that. I never hear that. They get a pass from everybody and they shouldn't."
Police hope once the shock of the weekend wears off, people will start talking about who is responsible for the shootings.
Police said they've been working around the clock this weekend and that the department has seen a citywide reduction in shootings by 17 percent this year.
COMMUNITY PROGRAMS AIM TO INTERRUPT CHICAGO VIOLENCE
Pastor Dimas Salaberrios from New York said he has been doing work to engage young people in Chicago this summer due to the violence, and asked the mayor and superintendent what else can be done to get the message to those using guns to injure and kill others.
"I'm hoping that people here would raise the bar in their commitment to transformation on the streets," Salaberrios said.
Whatever the solution, Salaberrios and other people working to quell the violence in Chicago say it has to be grassroots in nature, and involve people talking to other people face-to-face, especially young people, and meeting them where they are.
On the West Side, the Firehouse Community Arts Center is a former Chicago firehouse that was converted by North Lawndale Pastor Phil Jackson into a program that is aimed at getting young people off the streets through the arts and workforce development.
"The big priority is shifting their mindset from pulling the trigger, shifting their mindset from engaging in street life, and that takes a longer time," Jackson said.
He said young men between the ages of 17 and 25 are with the program for at least 18 months. The goal is to interrupt violence through different disciplines: dance, technology, audio engineering, fashion and culinary arts.
"Our whole drive is to say you count, you belong, and that history you haven't doesn't define who you are moving forward," he said.
The young men are given therapists and life coaches. The key, Jackson said, is having them work with people they know and can related to.
Jason Little works as the program's outreach supervisor. In 2004 he was shot seven times and told he would never walk again. Not only is Little walking, he now devotes his life to transforming men who were like him.
"When you give them hope that, hey, I once was shot, I once lived the lifestyle, now I'm doing something different with my life, it is possible," Little said.
The weekend violence did give the program some pause Monday, and the men in the program were told to stay home until things simmered down in the neighborhood. But despite the brief setback, Jackson and Little know they are making a difference.
Jackson said many of the young men in his program have gotten jobs and graduated from high school. He said stopping street violence is a collaborative effort. Firehouse Community Arts Center partners with Chicago Cred, an organization that focuses on jobs.
WITH CHICAGO IN NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT, MAYORAL OPPONENTS SEE OPPORTUNITY
The shootings drew reaction from around the country, including Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City and current lawyer for President Donald Trump. Giuliani originally tweeted, "Policing genius Jerry McCarthy can do for Chicago what I did for NYC," in reference to former Chicago Police Superintendent and current mayoral candidate Garry McCarthy.
Giuliani subsequently tweeted his support for McCarthy with the correct spelling.
Some mayoral hopefuls were quick to pounce on all the shootings as not just a violence issue but as a political issue as well in this election season.
Mayoral hopeful Paul Vallas said the mayor has a responsibility to beef up police and called for rehiring as many as 400 retired detectives.
"When you're only clearing 17 percent of the murders, it's just not about the community not giving them up, and if you know you're not capturing people, if you're not catching the shooters, part of the problem, part of the silence may be due to the fact that there are people walking the street who have shot people or who have even killed people and they haven't been caught," he said.
McCarthy was blunter in blaming Emanuel's leadership for the violence.
"This mayor has created this political environment here in this city by vilifying police and emboldening criminals," McCarthey said.
While Emanuel said he will take responsibility for his shortcomings, and that Chicago needs to do better, candidate Lori Lightfoot said the mayor is not doing enough to help neighborhoods victimized by violence.
"He needs to get out of his bubble. For way too long, for a number of years particularly over the last two years, this is the reality that people in neighborhoods all across the city are living in every single day," Lightfoot said.
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VIOLENT WEEKEND SPILLS OVER INTO MONDAY
The violence has spilled over into Monday morning, including a murder that happened just after midnight in the Roseland neighborhood not far from Chicago State University.
A person in a ski-mask fired shots at two people standing in front of a home. A 50-year-old man died a 55-year-old woman was hurt.
In the Fuller Park neighborhood, three people were shot by someone in a ski mask and a black hoodie.
The shooting occurred in the 4300-block of South Wentworth Avenue at about 2:26 a.m. Two men were in a parked vehicle and a third man was standing near it when the shots were fired.
A 32-year-old man was shot twice in the arm and a 33-year-old man was shot in the hip. Both men were transported to University of Chicago Hospital in stable condition. A 26-year-old man suffered a graze wound to the hand and thigh and is hospitalized at Stroger Hospital in stable condition.
Police say they know some of the shootings have been random and some targeted and related to gang conflicts.
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"Detectives are working around the clock to investigate the incidents, build a timeline of events and identify any shooter," said Chicago Police Chief of Patrol Fred Waller. "We'll also be conducting coordinated enforcement missions to target individuals that are driving the violence in these areas and focus on where we believe retaliatory violence may occur."
CPD also says it has implemented a data-driven policing strategy that helps police predict crime before it happens so they can put officers in the right places at the right time.
RAW VIDEO: Chicago police address surge in weekend violence:
Meanwhile, over the weekend, crowds of different grieving families gathered in the parking lots of emergency rooms across the city as hospitals were inundated with patients wounded by bullets.
Police say the violence is unacceptable and they say they continue to take illegal guns off the streets.
