16 Shot In Chicago Since 5 p.m. Tuesday
By Chuck Sudo in News on Jul 4, 2012 1:45PM
Chicago's "summer of gun" continued with an outbreak of gun violence that was shocking in its quickness and ferocity. Fifteen people have been shot in Chicago since 5 p.m. Tuesday and, with fireworks being set off in neighborhoods, placed the city on edge as residents wondered if a pop one was hearing was a firecracker or a gunshot.
Here is a breakdown of the shootings.
- A male was struck in his side and a female was shot in one of her toes in a drive-by shooting near a bus stop on the 2300 block of West Washington Boulevard around 8:15 p.m. That's on the city's Near West side by the United Center.
- Two women and a man were wounded, one of the women critically, in a suspected drive-by shooting on the 4400 block of North Racine Avenue just before 7:30 p.m.
- A 21-year-old man suffered a graze wound and a 34-year-old woman was shot in the buttocks in a drive-by shooting at the 3800 block of West Augusta Boulevard around 5:33 p.m.
- A man and three boys, ages 14 to 19, were shot in a drive-by shooting near 60th Street and Rockwell Avenue.
- A 15-year-old boy was shot in a park in the 8500 block of South Peoria when an assailant came up to the boy and shot him.
- A 48-year-old man was shot by an acquaintance in the 700 block of North St. Louis Avenue around 10:15 p.m.,
- Two people, one a 10-year-old girl, were shot while they were standing next to an open fire hydrant on the 200 block of North Leamington Avenue around 10 p.m. The girl suffered gunshot wounds to the left wrist and abdomen and was in critical condition at Stroger Hospital.
The obvious pattern, of course, is that most of these shootings were drive-bys. But they're also mostly centered in neighborhoods on the city's West and South sides that have long fought violent crime. Nakita Collins, a resident of the Austin neighborhood where the 10-year-old girl was shot, told the Chicago Sun-Times her neighborhood is overrun with drugs and gangs.
“We pay taxes and they don’t take care of us,” she said. “They don’t patrol ... I just don’t think they care.”
Tuesday night's shootings came on the heels of a weekend of violence in Chicago where 9 were killed and 22 injured in shootings, adding to the 38 percent increase in Chicago's murder rate this year.
Wonder what "perception issue" Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy will talk about today?
And, for God's sake put down the guns, Chicago.