It appears that Chicago has become a war zone like Somalia. In our case, the warlords are gangs.
Oh, and don’t forget: Chicago already has some of the toughest gun laws in the US.
Eleven people were killed and 44 were wounded in weekend shootings in Chicago from Friday afternoon to Monday morning, including an attack that left a 10-year-old boy dead and a police-involved shooting after police said a passenger in a traffic stop had refused to put down a gun.
More than half of the victims were hurt or killed during an 18-hour period from Saturday night to Sunday morning, police said. In that period, three people were killed in the Lawndale, South Shore and Princeton Park neighborhoods. Among those killed was Willie Cooper, 58, who worked at the South Side anti-violence organization Lilydale Outreach.
The night before, 10-year-old Gustavo Garcia was fatally shot in the back while riding in a car with his stepfather and another man in the East Side neighborhood on the Southeast Side. About 11:15 p.m. Friday in the 3500 block of East 97th Street, a gray sedan pulled up next to the SUV Gustavo was riding in, and someone inside the sedan then opened fire, police said.
After the barrage of gunfire, the driver of Gustavo’s car tried to get away quickly and happened to approach the scene of a fatal motorcycle accident in the 3200 block of East 95th Street, about a half-mile from the shooting, police said. The occupants got the attention of an officer at the crash.
Gustavo was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital and pronounced dead at 12:08 a.m. Saturday, according to the medical examiner’s office.
He is the fourth child to die in a shooting in Chicago so far this year, according to data compiled by the Tribune. In total, 14 children 12 years old or younger have been shot so far this year, according to Tribune data.