Chicago marks deadliest day by gunfire in more than a decade

CAPTIONBronzeville fatal shootingNancy Stone / Chicago Tribune
A security guard comforts another as they stand outside the scene of a shooting Sept. 3, 2015, in the 4700 block of South King Drive in Chicago. A 39-year-old man was killed and a 52-year-old man was wounded around 5:10 a.m.

By Patrick M. O'Connell, Alexandra Chachkevitch and Peter Nickeas Chicago Tribune contact the reporters

Wednesday sees most gunshot homicides in one day in Chicago since 2003


A teen in a park on the West Side. Two men in their 30s in Uptown on the North Side. A woman in her 20s in the South Side's Morgan Park neighborhood.

Chicago's most recent spasm of violence touched all corners of the city.

On Wednesday alone, eight people were shot to death in homicides. A ninth victim — an 11-year-old boy — died of an apparent accidental shooting.

That marked the most homicides in a single day in Chicago in more than a decade, according to a Tribune analysis of department data. The worst day previously was July 5, 2003, when Chicago saw 10 homicides, the analysis found.


Police: Boy, 11, accidentally shot and killed by relative playing with gun

The spate of violence comes in the waning days of summer as hot and humid weather sent city residents outdoors before Chicago Public Schools classes begin next week. The latest violence has added to a year that already has seen homicides and shootings rise in Chicago and in many big cities across the country.

Robert Tracy, the department's chief of crime control strategies, said it was unusual for that many homicides to take place in so many different police districts.

"If you look at the numbers … these shootings took place in different parts of the city," he said. "None of the shootings were connected. They were in eight different districts."

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"It's unfortunate to have this many murders in one day," Tracy said. "Is this the worst it has been? No. We've got to put it into perspective."

A department spokesman, picking up on a favorite theme of Superintendent Garry McCarthy, blamed the violence on the proliferation of guns.

"The fact that we lost lives last night is devastating and underscores why the Chicago Police Department is adamant that the city holds gun offenders accountable," said Anthony Guglielmi, director of communications.


Police investigate and relatives gather outside an apartment building on the 6800 block of South Merrill Avenue, where a man was found fatally shot in a hallway area Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015, in Chicago. (John J. Kim, Chicago Tribune)


By early Thursday, the toll had risen to 12 killed in homicides over the previous 36-hour span. That would be high even for a weekend, when gun violence normally spikes. The burst of violence began Tuesday afternoon when a teen was killed in Riis Park in the Belmont Central neighborhood and continued until early Thursday with the fatal shooting of a 39-year-old man in Bronzeville. Another 21 people were wounded in shootings during that span.

So far this year, homicides in Chicago have risen about 20 percent, to 294 through Aug. 23, up from 244 as of that date a year earlier, according to department statistics. Shooting incidents have spiked for a second consecutive year, up 18 percent through Aug. 23 to 1,535, up from 1,300 a year earlier, the department said.

Homicides have also jumped in many major cities, including Milwaukee and St. Louis in the Midwest.

Across the country, an average of 31 people are killed every day by gun violence — not including suicide — and 198 are shot and survive, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which advocates for stricter background checks for gun buyers.


The Beat: Dispatches from the street by Tribune reporters and photographers

Not included in Wednesday's homicide tally in Chicago was Antwone Price, the 11-year-old who died after he was accidentally shot by a relative who was playing with a gun inside their home in the Park Manor neighborhood. The Police Department, which doesn't classify accidental shootings as homicides, said no charges had been filed against the relative as of Thursday afternoon.

This was not the first time the family has experienced gun violence. Antwone's father was fatally shot two years ago in the Englewood neighborhood--and his family told the Tribune at that time that his father's father was killed in 2000.

"He was just a good kid," said Michele Watson, Antwone's grandmother, outside Comer Children's Hospital, where the boy was rushed. "He loved life."

Family members said the boy was active in his church and dreamed of becoming a funeral director. He even helped make arrangements for his aunt last year after her death.

"He wasn't your average 11-year-old," said Barbara Sanders, also his grandmother. "He was like a 30-year-old in an 11-year-old body."

His grandparents said Antwone himself organized his recent transfer to Comer College Prep Middle School, where he started sixth grade about a week ago.

"He said the previous school wasn't challenging enough for him," Watson said.

She fondly remembered how Antwone brought fresh flowers and chocolate-covered strawberries for Watson, his mother and his aunt to celebrate Mother's Day.

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