Thread: Everyone is scared

'Everybody is scared'
(http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/4876 ... 28.article)

July 28, 2007

BY STEVEN ROSS JOHNSON, BEN LEFEBVRE AND ERIN CALANDRIELLO Courier News
Five young men were shot in Elgin on a hot summer night, leaving a crime-stricken neighborhood shaking in disbelief. Two died.

Police said this week's first and second homicides of the year in that northwest suburb could be gang-related.

Shortly after 10:10 p.m. Thursday, the five men, ranging in age from 16 to 23, were shot outside the home of two of the victims in the 300 block of North Street. One was recent Elgin High School graduate Julian Mascote, who died in the arms of his 13-year-old brother, Rodrigo, within minutes of the shooting.

Julian Mascote previously had been identified by police as having involvement with local street gangs.

Elgin Police Sgt. Sean Rafferty said officers responding to a neighbor's report of shots fired found the men suffering from gunshot wounds outside the home. Mascote and 21-year-old Francisco Franco of Elgin were pronounced dead on arrival at Sherman Hospital.

Three others, including Mascote's 16-year-old brother Diego, were being treated Friday afternoon at Sherman and Provena St. Joseph Hospital in Elgin.

"There appears to have been one shooter on foot," Rafferty said. "We don't know how many suspects there are yet."

As daylight crept into the neighborhood Friday, residents offered no descriptions of the shooter to police investigators, Rafferty said. No weapon was found on the scene, and there were no reports of the victims having returned fire, he said.

Onlookers described a neighborhood in fear of its descent into violence.

"Everybody is scared around here," said Edward Lorenzo, who has lived in the neighborhood 11 years and said he has noticed the number of gun-related incidents there has increased steadily in the last five years.

"The [police] gang unit is always coming around -- it's getting worse," he said.

Exactly three weeks before, police found seven 9mm shell casings and bloodstains around the corner in the 300 block of College Street. Witnesses said several men cruising in a dark-colored car shot a 21-year-old man in the leg.

The murders this week leave residents and the victims' relatives shaken, fearful and frustrated.

Friday morning, as reporters and police swarmed the scene, residents placed two white crosses in the ground in a neighboring yard while relatives of Mascote gathered at his home in mourning.

"He made the family happy. He was always playing around," said his little brother. "He was the only dude who could make jokes, and he was trying to get on the right path. I miss him, and I hope God takes care of him."

Rafferty could not say whether this incident marked a rise in gang activity but said there was always a possibility for retaliation or continued attacks.

Police urged witnesses or anyone with information in the shooting to call (847) 695-4195, an anonymous tip line available in English and Spanish.

In light of the fact that Elgin has a rather large illegal alien population, I'm not surprised. Just like Chicago, Chicago Heights, Joliet and Aurora the neighborhoods will sink into the abyss of poverty stricken, spanish speaking hell, if they don't do something to stop it.

Got that right.......areas are already there.

Here's some creative ways they make money here.....

Police seek woman in $30,000 health scam

July 28, 2007
A 45-year-old man told Aurora police that he lost $30,000 to a woman who promised to cure his back problem.

According to police, the victim found the woman's name on a flier posted at a grocery store in the 600 block of East New York Street. On Wednesday, the victim met the woman at an apartment in the 0-99 block of West Street and handed over $30,000 in cash -- the amount she requested to fix his back, police said.

The woman told the victim to return the next day, but when he did, the apartment was empty, police said. The suspect is described as a pregnant Hispanic female who used the name Angelica. She is about 5-foot-2, 160 pounds with long, straight black hair, police said.

Anyone with information is asked to call Aurora police at (630) 859-1700.

Traffic


Off-duty officer hit

An off-duty Aurora police officer who was driving his personal car was rear-ended four times by a car at 11:05 p.m. Wednesday near Ohio and Liberty streets, Aurora police said. According to the report, the officer was driving north on Ohio Street when he was struck from behind.
Fearing for his safety, the officer continued to drive west on Front Street and was hit three more times -- the final bump pushing him into the intersection with Beach Street, police said. The officer was not injured, but the car suffered damage to the trunk area, police said.

The suspect -- described as a male Hispanic in his early 20s, wearing a black baseball cap -- was last seen driving east on Grove Street, police said.

Fearing for his safety, the officer continued to drive west

Even the cops are scared!

Gosh all these people are short aren't they. The illegal men next door come up to my elbow practically. You know that game you play when you go around the board htting things that keep popping up? That is what I dream about everyday. Just turn them them into that popup game. I just want to bong them on the head when they get to close.

Just turn them them into that popup game

Whack a mole!!!!!

Paige -I thought I was the only person who noticed the height thing!I am only 5'1" and I usually look them straight in the eye or have to look down some.

Iam 5"9. Not one of these people even hit my shoulders. At least the ones next door. I think the illegals next door are from Hondurus. There faces are more Indian looking.

Originally Posted by crazybird

Traffic


Off-duty officer hit

An off-duty Aurora police officer who was driving his personal car was rear-ended four times by a car at 11:05 p.m. Wednesday near Ohio and Liberty streets, Aurora police said. According to the report, the officer was driving north on Ohio Street when he was struck from behind.
Fearing for his safety, the officer continued to drive west on Front Street and was hit three more times -- the final bump pushing him into the intersection with Beach Street, police said. The officer was not injured, but the car suffered damage to the trunk area, police said.

The suspect -- described as a male Hispanic in his early 20s, wearing a black baseball cap -- was last seen driving east on Grove Street, police said.

Fearing for his safety, the officer continued to drive west

Even the cops are scared!

That is just sad on so many levels. So is this:

Escaping gangs: Two teens wanted out, one made it
ESCAPING GANGS | One teen came up with $300 to buy his freedom -- one paid with his life

July 29, 2007
BY ANNIE SWEENEY AND RUMMANA HUSSAIN Staff Reporters/asweeney@suntimes.com rhussain@suntimes.com
Their stories are alike in so many ways.

Both are 17. Both have hardworking moms and loving families.

And soon after joining the same gang, both wanted out.


» Click to enlarge image

A Northwest Side mother embraces her 17-year-old son, who got out of a gang after a $300 payment.
(Scott Stewart/Sun-Times)

RELATED STORIES
• Gang members who seek to quit need allies: experts
• More local news
But while one teen -- who does not want to be named in print -- paid for his freedom with $300, the other paid with his life.
Wilfredo Serrano, after seeking forgiveness from the church and sobering up, was gunned down Wednesday night in the playground of the Wicker Park elementary school where he shot hoops and earned straight A's a few years earlier.


'Everybody makes mistakes'
The teens' journeys highlight how tricky it is to sever ties to gang life -- even when you've got the help and drive to do it.
Both boys were working toward a GED -- Wilfredo's was to be awarded next month -- and had plans for the future.

"He was trying," said Wilfredo's mom Carmen Garay, 43. "Everybody makes mistakes."

Fresh from a six-month stint at a suburban drug intervention facility, Wilfredo had started talking about leaving the gang and becoming a mechanic. "He said, 'I want to prove to Mommy I could be somebody. I don't want to be like that my whole life,' " Wilfredo's brother Felipe Serrano, 21, said Friday.

Garay last saw her youngest child Wednesday as she went for a walk and he drove by the corner in a car with friends. She figured he'd be out a bit longer since he didn't have the keys. The next time she saw her "baby," he was dead.

Police said Wilfredo's murder, at 1132 N. Wolcott, may have been "over something personal," but Garay is sure her son was a victim of gang violence.

"He [the suspect] was on a mission. Either someone asked him to do it, or he was being initiated," said Garay, a Head Start teacher. "My son was the closest to him. It was either going to be my son or someone else."

Wilfredo, relatives said, was a "good kid" and may have joined a gang only to escape the domestic violence he witnessed at home. Excited that he was giving up gangs, Wilfredo's family was ready to see him reach his potential. "He didn't want to be like that," his sister, Sonia Serrano, 19, said. "He was just at the wrong place at the wrong time."


• • •

Five months ago, Alicia Tubeileh stood in her Northwest Side home, begging her mother for a loan. She needed $300 to buy her 17-year-old son out of a gang.

It had been more than a year since the boy had joined up in his Albany Park neighborhood, only to decide after one month to quit. As a result, he was beaten and chased by gang members over the next several months.

Tubeileh, who already had used her own neighborhood contacts to try to yank her son out of the gang, finally found help several months ago at a funeral. There, she met a worker from CeaseFire, an organization that works with gangs to reduce violence.


Anti-violence group helps
CeaseFire immediately intervened, going straight to the gang with the family's request that he be left alone. But they were told there was a price: $300 or a three-minute beating. There was no choice for Tubeileh, even on a single, working-mom's budget.

"I said no one will ever protect you like I will,'' the 40-year-old mother of five had told her son after he joined. "No one will take a bullet for you like I will.''

Ultimately, the CeaseFire workers -- Zale Hoddenbach, Max Cerda and Enrique Borges -- gave Tubeileh most of the money she needed. She paid $50. Her son had to walk to a corner near his house to pay the fine. The CeaseFire workers were by his side. Shaking, he handed the money over. They counted it. And then, they gave him a pass.

"I was nervous, anxious,'' said his mother, who was waiting at home. "I didn't know what to expect. When they came back, I started crying. I gave my son a hug. I said, 'God gave you another chance. You were just reborn.' "


'I'm just a normal kid'
The teen said he knew the day after his three-minute initiation beating into the gang that he didn't want that life. "I'm just a normal kid that got with the wrong people," he explained.
Today, he feels relief.

He hangs out mostly at home, occasionally baby-sitting. He moves about the neighborhood with more calmness.

But even in his quiet neighborhood of manicured lawns and burgeoning development, the threat lurks, he said.

"Still worried,'' is how he described himself. "Still looking behind me. Just because I am out doesn't mean they can't turn on me.''


http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/4881 ... 29.article