Thread: CHICAGO Officials: 6 shot in one hour citywide

Officials: 6 shot in one hour citywide

August 13, 2013|By Rosemary Regina Sobol | Tribune reporter

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(Tribune illustration)

At least seven people were shot across the city Monday night, including six shot within an hour, officials said.

About 6:15 p.m., someone shot a 21-year-old man and a 53-year-old woman in the 1300 block of West Washburn Avenue in the city's University Village neighborhood, police News Affairs Officer Joshua Purkiss said.

Both were taken to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, Purkiss said. The woman suffered a graze wound to the head and was taken in good condition to University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said. The 21-year-old man was taken in critical condition to Stroger, Langford said.


In a separate shooting at 6:12 p.m. in the 1300 block of South Loomis Street, a 23-year-old man was shot and critically wounded, said Langford. The man was also taken in critical condition to Stroger.

Police said the shots may have come from a passing vehicle.

About 6:20 p.m. in the West Pullman neighborhood on the Far South Side, a 17-year-old boy apparently accidentally shot himself in the groin and thigh in the 11600 block of South Wentworth Avenue, police said.

The teenager was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where his condition had stabilized, Langford said.

At 6:47 p.m., a 13-year-old boy was shot in the foot in the 7500 block of South Ingleside Avenue, Langford said. The child was taken to University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital in good condition, he said.

At 7:13 p.m., a person was shot in the arm in the 7200 block of South Wabash Avenue and was taken in good condition to Saint Bernard Hospital and Health Care Center, Langford said.

A 17-year-old by walked into West Suburban Medical Center about 8:40 p.m. shot in the wrist, authorities said. Police believe the boy, who was listed in good condition, was shot in the 5500 block of West Potomac Avenue.

Tribune reporter Adam Sege contributed.
rsobol@tribune.com

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-08-13/news/chi-police-3-wounded-in-west-pullman-university-village-shootings-20130812_1_good-condition-critical-condition-south-ingleside-avenue

4 Dead, 23 Wounded in Weekend Shootings

NBC Chicago-Aug 12, 2013
At least four people were killed and 23 others were wounded in weekend shootings across Chicago. The most recent shooting took place at ...

August 14, 2013 7:44 PM

Funeral director says Chicago gun violence destroying city

By Danielle Nottingham

(CBS News) CHICAGO -- The Leak and Sons funeral home has been on Chicago's South Side for 80 years. Spencer Leak Sr. arranges 2,000 funerals a year. More and more, they are for shooting victims.
Leak says he's arranged about 45 gun-violence-related funerals so far this year.


Leak and Sons director Spencer Leak says he is angered and saddened by Chicago's gun violence.
/ CBS News

That's about the number of murders last year in Seattle and Tampa, combined.

"A significant portion of my day is spent trying to counsel with mothers who have lost sons through gun violence," Leak says. "I saw three mothers over the weekend. I'm waiting to see a mother today, possibly another."

"My heart goes out to her, because I know what's happening to her ... I just can't turn her down or away," he says.

Leak says the hardest part of his job is "the age of the young people."

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"The fact that they are victims of just rage, rampant violence, not necessarily directed toward them," he says.

One was Jonylah Watkins. She was hit by a bullet meant for her father.


Jonylah Watkins was hit by a bullet meant for her father.

"I buried this little baby -- six months old -- the most beautiful baby you would ever see," Leak says. "A baby girl killed in her father's lap. That just goes all through me -- it makes my stomach turn to have to do that. I'm angry, I'm sad."

"I just worry about my grandchildren having to live in a city that's so divided that we're destroying ourselves," he says.

"They come to these funerals, they come by the thousands to see young people lying in a casket," Leak says. "They are looking to experience the same fate, because of the nature of our city. We in the black community, people like myself, we must come together, band together and stop the division that exists in our city, and then try to turn around some lives."

The man Leak buried Wednesday was 40-year-old Clifton Balentine. He was at a cookout when someone walked up to him and his group of friends and opened fire.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57598592/funeral-director-says-chicago-gun-violence-destroying-city/