City Wastes No Time Getting Violent Start To '09

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Jan 1, 2009 5:08PM

It didn't take long for Chicago to follow up it's most violent year since 2003 with the first murder of 2009. Police responded to reports of an argument and shooting outside a nightclub at West Lake and North Green streets around 2:15 a.m. last night and found two men shot. David Garrett, 47, became the city's first homicide of 2009, declared dead at the scene from a gunshot wound to the head. The other victim was taken to John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County in serious to critical condition. The suspect fled the scene.

Around the same time as the shooting, a brawl broke out at the River North nightclub Excalibur, resulting in an EMS Plan 1 response which sends five ambulances to the scene. Five people were taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in good condition as a result of the fight. While no other details of the brawl were available, police confirmed the Plan 1 response was "secured" by 2:40 a.m.

2008 ended with 508 homicides in Chicago, up from 445 last year, an increase of 14 percent. Chicago Police superintendent Jody Weis expressed concern about the rising number of murders.

You have to have expectations for people. We've got to turn this homicide rate down...People were learning their job, learning their territory, learning their people, learning where the threats are...But we\'ve got people in place right now who are very strong leaders...We're not going to get a pass next year. I want those numbers down.

The Englewood district had the highest number of murders in 2008 and the Harrison district was second. Also of concern to Weis was the jump in teens murdered, from 70 in 2007 to 110 in 2008. Said Weis, "There's a sense of hopelessness in a lot of the children. And there's also a lack of an ability to settle a disagreement in a normal, responsible manner...It's over silly stuff...to prove your manhood or womanhood.You've got to create communities where it's unacceptable behavior to be violent."

Photo by James Herman