Fourth of July weekend toll: 82 shot, 14 of them fatally, in Chicago
10:39 a.m. CDT, July 7, 2014
For 10 minutes, it seemed like the shooting was everywhere in the South Chicago neighborhood.

It started when someone shot and wounded a couple, then two people fired at the shooter, then there was a chase and shots exchanged and a man sitting on a porch was hit. Responding officers kept cutting each other off on their radios as they reported other gunfire in the area late Sunday night and early Monday morning.

Then the heavy equipment rolled in: A helicopter and SUVs packed with lockers of rifles. SWAT teams in green coveralls patrolled the streets with uniformed officers.

It was just one of dozens of shooting scenes across Chicago over the long Fourth of July weekend. In all, at least 82 people were shot, 14 of them fatally, since Thursday afternoon when two woman were shot as they sat outside a two-flat within a block of Garfield Park.

Five of the people were shot by police over 36 hours on Friday and Saturday, including two boys 14 and 16 who were killed when they allegedly refused to drop their guns.

Many of the long weekend's shootings were on the South Side, clustered in the Englewood, Roseland, Gresham and West Pullman neighborhoods that rank among the most violent in the city.

The victims ranged from the 14-year-boy shot by police in the Old Irving Park neighborhood to a 66-year-old woman grazed in the head as she walked up the steps of her porch on the Far South Side. Most victims were in their late teens and 20s.

Each night of the long holiday weekend, at least a dozen people were shot in the greatest burst of gun violence Chicago has seen this year.

• From Thursday night into Friday, three people were killed and 10 others wounded. An attack outside a West Englewood salon left two men dead and an East Garfield Park shooting took the life of a 21-year-old woman.

• From Friday afternoon into Saturday, 20 people were shot, one fatally. The man who died had been flashing gang signs in a parking lot in the Clearing neighborhood when someone told him to stop. When the man didn’t, he was shot, police said.

• From Saturday night into Sunday morning, four people were killed and another 10 wounded.

• The bloodiest stretch of the weekend was a 13-hour period between 2:30 p.m. Sunday and 3:30 a.m. Monday when four people were killed and at least another 26 wounded, many of them in critical condition. And the most chaotic scene was in South Chicago, where three people were wounded during a running gun battle.

The shooting started around 11:20 p.m. Sunday when someone opened fire at two people who just left a store on Exchange Avenue south of 80th Street. A 25-year-old man was taken in critical condition to Northwestern Memorial Hospital and a 19-year-old woman was stabilized at Advocate Christ Medical Center.

While the man was firing, two people on the street shot at him and a chase ensued, with the three exchanging gunfire through a vacant lot west toward Escanaba Avenue, police and neighbors said.

The three didn't hit each other but a 48-year-old man was caught in the crossfire while sitting on the porch. He was wounded in the ankle and taken to Jackson Park Hospital.

The shooting kicked off an hour of occasional chaos as responding officers kept hearing gunfire, first the exchange between the three, then an apparently unrelated volley of shots a few blocks west on Muskegon Avenue where police found shell casings on a porch.

A 10-1 -- a call for an officer in distress -- was broadcast across the city because the shots were so close to police.

Officers from across the South Side responded, including tactical teams who had been ordered to wear their uniforms instead of plainclothes for the holiday weekend.

Police were radioing about hearing gunfire all over the neighborhood, and a district lieutenant ordered a perimeter over a three-block-by-four-block area. No one was taken into custody.

As a helicopter circled overhead, someone shot up a house a few blocks south on Exchange Avenue, just outside the perimeter, around midnight. The gunfire was called over the police radio before any 911 calls were received, and officers ran down the street toward where the gunfire came from.

The house that was hit by gunfire, in the 8400 block of South Exchange, was near where a teen had been shot earlier in the day and police had responded to a call of a gang disturbance. A group of gang members had been hanging out outside and someone wanted them removed, police said.

About half an hour later, the neighborhood had finally quieted down. "Release the perimeter," the lieutenant ordered, though he asked that patrol cars keep a watch on the four crime scenes.

 BlaxicanX wrote:
Indeed. Hence why Texas and Florida have the second and third highest gun-murder rates in the Country respectively while Illinois has the 8th highest rate.

 BlaxicanX wrote:
Indeed. The snipe at gun laws was just lulzy and worthy of parody.

 BlaxicanX wrote:
Indeed. Hence why Texas and Florida have the second and third highest gun-murder rates in the Country respectively while Illinois has the 8th highest rate.

 Frazzled wrote:

 BlaxicanX wrote:
Indeed. The snipe at gun laws was just lulzy and worthy of parody.

We did a drill at a match a month ago where we had to take out three targets "gangsta" style (one handed, pistol on its side). It was...unique.

 Jihadin wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:

 BlaxicanX wrote:
Indeed. The snipe at gun laws was just lulzy and worthy of parody.

We did a drill at a match a month ago where we had to take out three targets "gangsta" style (one handed, pistol on its side). It was...unique.

I crushed a Specialist for pulling that stupid crap in Afghanistan

 -Shrike- wrote:
Wow... And people actually want to live there?

 -Shrike- wrote:
Wow... And people actually want to live there?

 whembly wrote:

 -Shrike- wrote:
Wow... And people actually want to live there?

It's actually a cool town... as a St. Louisian, it's fun to root against them at Wrigley field and at Blues vs 'Hawks game.

It's just that there are areas you just shouldn't visit.

 Frazzled wrote:
Its the pizza.

 -Shrike- wrote:
Wow... And people actually want to live there?

 d-usa wrote:
If this is going to be a sensible debate about the socioeconomic factors influencing the crime rate of Chicago and the influence of factors such as organized crime, trafficking, gang violence and corruption compared to other cities in the US it might be a good thread.

If it's just another gun thread couldn't it just go in one of the other ones we already have?

 d-usa wrote:
If this is going to be a sensible debate about the socioeconomic factors influencing the crime rate of Chicago and the influence of factors such as organized crime, trafficking, gang violence and corruption compared to other cities in the US it might be a good thread.

If it's just another gun thread couldn't it just go in one of the other ones we already have?

A University of Washington study finds that hospital patients with gunshot wounds are much more likely than other patients to die from gun violence or commit crimes in the future

People hospitalized with a firearm injury are 30 times more likely to return to the hospital with another firearm injury than people hospitalized for other reasons. And they’re 11 times more likely to die from gun violence within the next five years, according to a study commissioned by the Seattle City Council.

Researchers at the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center at the University of Washington studied 20,000 patients hospitalized in King County and 77,000 hospitalized in all of Washington state in 2006 and 2007. They went back five years and forward five years, examining patients’ previous arrest and hospitalization histories.

Dr. Frederick Rivara, lead author and professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington, said that the study’s finding of a correlation isn’t that surprising, but that the rates are dramatic.

“Those people are really at high risk,” he said.

The study highlighted a strong correlation between firearm-related hospitalizations and poor outcomes after being discharged, including repeated hospitalization, commission of crime and death. A quarter of those hospitalized for a firearm-related injury were arrested for firearm-related crime within the next five years.

Researchers found that those hospitalized with a gun-related injury who had a prior arrest for gun-related or violent crime were 43 times more likely to be slain within the next five years than those without either.

The study also looked at patients’ prior alcohol or drug abuse as well as prior psychiatric history. Those who were hospitalized with a gun-related injury who had prior arrests for firearms or violence were 13 times more likely to be arrested over the next five years, while those with prior psychiatric history were only twice as likely to be arrested.

Council President Tim Burgess led the council to authorize $153,000 for the study last June in light of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut. Seattle is the first American city to pioneer research of the effects of gun violence, since the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cannot receive federal funds for a national study after the National Rifle Association successfully lobbied against such funding in 1996.

The findings will be presented to the City Council at 9:30 a.m. Monday.

“It was important for the city to step up and fund this research so we could get the facts on gun violence and in our community,” Burgess said.

Beyond gun laws, Burgess has an idea to provide patients with firearm-related injuries with similar treatment methods to those with alcohol abuse: an intervention strategy where patients could meet with physicians, social workers and psychologists before being discharged.

“We’re headed in the right direction in upstream interventions,” he said.

 d-usa wrote:
All the"guns are bad" and "gun control are bad" posts beat me to the punch already.

 Jihadin wrote:
Does get stupid when people add in "why" they cannot own nukes, IED's, fully operational cannons, combat ready tanks, crew serve weapons, Hellfire missiles, mortar tubes, and free health care etc etc etc etc

 purplefood wrote:
I assume one detonates a nuke with the express intention of damaging neighbouring properties...