54 shot, 11 fatally, over Christmas weekend - Chicago Tribune

Two girls, 13 and 14, were shot on the South Side as a violent Christmas weekend came to a close during one of the most violent years in Chicago in decades.

A total of 61 people were shot in the city during the holiday weekend and 11 of them died of their wounds, according to data kept by the Tribune. Seven people were killed on Christmas Day alone, more than on the holiday the past three years combined. Three people were killed in 2015, one in 2014, and two in 2013.

The number of people shot over the holiday weekend also sharply outpaced recent years. During the Christmas weekend in 2015, 29 people were shot and seven of them died. In 2014, when Christmas fell on a Thursday, the four-day weekend included 35 people shot and seven people killed, according to Tribune data.

This past weekend's toll pushed the total number of people shot in Chicago this year to more than 4,300 and the number of homicides to around 770. Last year, there were 2,989 shooting victims and 492 homicides.

Most of the shootings occurred on the West and South sides, in neighborhoods that have borne the brunt of the gun violence this year.  They ranged from Austin and West Humboldt Park on the West Side to Gresham and Chatham on the South Side.

There were eight shootings involving multiple victims and two double homicides. One of them was an attack during a party in the East Chatham neighborhood that left two brothers dead and five others wounded.

Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said most of the weekend's victims were targeted by gang members.

"The violence primarily occurred in areas with historical gang conflicts on the South and West sides of the city," Johnson said the day after Christmas. "We now know that the majority of these shootings and homicides were targeted attacks by gangs against potential rival gang members and groups who were at holiday gatherings.

"These were deliberate and planned shootings by one gang against another," he added. "They were targeted knowing fully well that individuals would be at the homes of family and friends celebrating the holidays. This was followed by several acts of retaliation."

Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said 90 percent of those killed during the weekend "had gang affiliations, criminal histories and were pre-identified by the department's strategic subject algorithm as being a potential suspect or victim of gun violence."

Among the last people shot during the long weekend were two young teenage girls wounded in Gresham while waiting in a van for their father, according to police.

The girls were with a 2-year-old boy outside Leland Giants Park just after 11:30 p.m. Monday, police said. The 13-year-old's father had just left the van to speak with someone in a house when two people came up and fired into the vehicle, police said.

The 14-year-old was hit in the back and was taken to Comer Children's Hospital in critical condition. The 13-year-old was grazed in the arm and was taken to St. Bernard Hospital in good condition. The 2-year-old was unharmed, police said.

Guglielmi said the father was a gang member and police "are operating under the belief that the father was the intended target."

Other shootings as the holiday weekend came to a close:

-- Around 12:50 a.m. Tuesday, a 25-year-old woman was shot as she sat in a parked vehicle in the 3500 block of West Van Buren Street. Another vehicle approached and someone inside fired shots. She was hit in the buttocks and went to Stroger Hospital in good condition.

-- Around 10:50 p.m. Monday, a 23-year-old man was grazed by a bullet in the Near West Side neighborhood. He was outside in the 200 block of South Leavitt Avenue when someone got out of a silver Ford Fusion, shouted gang slogans and opened fire, police said. The man was grazed in the right arm and listed in good condition at Stroger Hospital.

-- About 8:55 p.m. in the 800 block of North Keeler Avenue, a 23-year-old man was hit in the buttocks and taken to a hospital, where his condition was stabilized, police said.

-- Earlier in the West Englewood neighborhood, someone was wounded around 7:20 p.m. An 18-year-old man was shot in the 6700 block of South Wolcott Avenue and taken to Holy Cross Hospital for treatment.

-- Two shootings happened in about a 15-minute span in rival gang territories in the Back of the Yards neighborhood.

The first, about 5:40 p.m, happened in the 4800 block of South Bishop Street. A 34-year-old man was shot in the neck and drove to a fire station seeking treatment. Paramedics took him to Stroger Hospital, police said.

Just after 5:50 p.m., someone was shot in the 4400 block of South Hermitage Street a few blocks away. The 23-year-old was walking when someone stepped out of a vehicle and fired shots, hitting him multiple times.

The 23-year-old is in critical condition, and the 34-year-old's condition has been stabilized. Both are at Stroger Hospital.

-- Around 5:25 p.m., a 45-year-old man was shot in the 4100 block of West Arthington Street and taken Mount Sinai Hospital. He had been in an argument just before getting shot, police said.

-- Two people were shot in the 5800 block of South May Street in the  Englewood neighborhood about 3:25 p.m. A 20-year-old man was taken to Stroger Hospital with a gunshot wound to his back and a 35-year-old man refused medical treatment for a graze wound. Someone in a dark-colored sedan fired shots and fled the scene, police said.

-- A 22-year-old man walked into Advocate Trinity Hospital on the South Side around 2:45 p.m. with a gunshot wound suffered in the 7900 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue, police said.

-- Around 11:20 a.m. in the 1800 block of South Ridgeway Avenue in North Lawndale, a 23-year-old man was shot in each leg. He was being treated at Mount Sinai Hospital, according to police.

-- Around 10:40 a.m., a 24-year-old man was shot in the hand in the 400 block of West Marquette Road in Englewood, police said. Details weren't immediately available.

-- In the 7000 block of South Indiana, in the Park Manor neighborhood about 9:30 a.m., an initial call went out for two people shot in the area of 78th Street. Police later said a 25-year-old man had a graze wound to his head and also was shot in a leg. A 26-year-old man was shot in the face. The men were able to get themselves to St. Bernard Hospital, where they were being treated.

-- The first daylight shooting Monday happened about 9:25 a.m. in the 300 block of South Kostner Avenue. A 24-year-old man was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital with gunshot wounds to the ankle and leg. He was stable, authorities said. Police said he was in a car in the 4400 block of West Van Buren Street when he was shot and he fled to the 300 block of South Kostner, around the corner.

The holiday weekend began with five teenagers shot within feet of each other in the South Austin neighborhood. At 3:30 p.m. Friday, a 16-year-old boy was shot in the 4900 block of West Kinzie Street. A little more than an hour later, four other teenagers were shot just feet away, in the 4900 block of West Hubbard Street. Their conditions had stabilized.