30 people shot, 3 fatally, in 18 hours in Chicago
Reporting from Chicago — Thirty people were shot, three fatally, during a violent 18-hour period in Chicago this weekend, which included a police-involved shooting and an attack outside a hospital, authorities said.
In one neighborhood, a woman voiced her frustration at the scene of a double shooting that left a 31-year-old man dead and a 32-year-old man wounded in the leg.
“They know it’s a drug house,” she yelled at police and a crowd that gathered at the scene. “They don’t” care. “I do. I’m tired of this.”
The shooter approached the two men and opened fire minutes after 1 a.m. Sunday, authorities said.
As police worked to secure the area, some members of the crowd started to fight.
“We need some help,” a woman yelled at police.
Officers eventually dispersed the crowd, shouting, “Time to go.”
One police officer guarded a shoe, stained with what appeared to be blood, that had been left in an intersection.
It was one of a series of shootings between Saturday and Sunday.
In one South Side neighborhood, a 23-year-old man was shot dead just before 3:20 a.m. Sunday, police said. He was in a parked car when two men approached and opened fire, striking him in the chest and left arm.
On Saturday, a 58-year-old husband, father and community activist was shot dead less than a block from the anti-violence organization where he worked on the South Side, his family and police said.
Willie Cooper was walking on West 95th Street at about 4:15 p.m. when a dark-colored vehicle approached and someone inside fired, hitting him in the mouth and torso, they said.
Relatives arrived crying where Cooper’s body lay outside a liquor store.
“He did a lot for the community,” said his wife, Sherry Clark, 44.
Another man was shot Sunday as he walked toward Mt. Sinai Hospital, restricting access to one of four trauma facilities inside city limits for about three of the weekend’s most violent hours, according to police and hospital personnel.
It wasn’t immediately clear how close the man was to the building when he was struck in the groin area about 3:35 a.m, said Dianne Hunter, a spokeswoman for the hospital.
Hunter said the hospital immediately went on lockdown and on bypass, meaning dispatchers informed all ambulance companies that drivers were not to take patients to Mt. Sinai, Hunter said.
A police spokeswoman said she believed the victim was taken inside the hospital and treated. He was listed in serious condition Sunday.
A teen believed to be 18 years old was shot by police about 3:10 a.m. Sunday during a traffic stop in an alley, police said.
Two officers exchanged words with the young man after seeing him with a gun inside the car, according to police, but he reportedly did not put down the weapon.
He was shot in the arm and leg. His condition was stabilized at a hospital.
Malagon, Wong, Sobol and Rosenberg-Douglas report for the Chicago Tribune.
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