Schiquille Salter was shot to death Sunday night in the West Pullman neighborhood.

Slater, 23, was shot several times in the chest while standing on a corner in the 300 block of West 116th Street just after 9 p.m. Sunday, authorities said.

Slater, who lived on the block, was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he died at 9:54 p.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Nobody has been charged for the murder.

Area South detectives are investigating.

-- Sun-Times Media Wire

BY MICHAEL LANSU
Homicide Watch Chicago Editor

Fourteen people were shot to death last week throughout Chicago.

Nine of the murders happened during the three-day holiday weekend, when at least 60 other people shot and wounded. Additionally, man and woman were fatally shot early Monday. Their identifies have not yet been released.

On Sunday, 23-year-old Schiquille Salter was shot several times in the chest while standing on a corner in the 300 block of West 116th Street about 9 p.m., authorities said.

Slater, who lived on the block, was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he died at 9:54 p.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

In Austin, 21-year-old Donald Ray was sitting in a car with another man in the 5200 block of West Lake Street when someone walked up and opened fire about 5:40 p.m. Sunday, authorities said.

Ray, of the 2000 block of West Adams Street, was struck in the head and died at West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park less than an hour later, authorities said. The other man, 19, was wounded but survived.

In Uptown, 19-year-old Kezon Lamb and a woman were sitting in a vehicle in the 4400 block of North Malden Street when a gunman walked up and opened fire about 12:20 a.m. Sunday, authorities said.

Lamb, of the 4100 block of West 127th Street in Alsip, was struck in the back and died at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center less than an hour later, authorities said.

On Saturday, 25-year-old Anthony Hobson was riding a bicycle in the 10400 block of South Normal Avenue in Roseland when a silver car drove past and someone inside opened fire about 11:35 p.m., authorities said.

Hobson, of the 10500 block of South Normal Avenue, was struck in the head and shoulder and died at Roseland Community Hospital less than an hour later, authorities said.

In West Englewood, police found 18-year-old Shaquille Ross shot multiple times in the street in the 6500 block of South Seeley Avenue about 4:30 p.m. Saturday, authorities said.

Ross, of the 200 block of West 95th Street, died at Christ Medical Center about four hours later, according to the medical examiner’s office.

In the South Chicago neighborhood, 23-year-old Deandre Brown was in the 8700 block of South Houston Avenue when he was shot in the abdomen and leg about 10:20 a.m. Saturday, authorities said.

Brown, of the 9000 block of South Mackinaw Avenue, died at Northwestern Memorial Hospital just over an hour later, according to the medical examiner’s office.

In the Clearing neighborhood, 30-year-old Joel Bentley was in the parking lot on the southwest corner of West 63rd Street and South Austin Avenue when he was shot in the abdomen just before 1 a.m. Saturday, authorities said.

Bentley, 30, of the 5000 block of South Keating Avenue, died at Christ Medical Center at 5:46 a.m. Saturday, according to the medical examiner’s office.

On Friday, 34-year-old Corey Hudson and 35-year-old Robbert Cotton were standing outside in the 2000 block of West 63rd Street when a black vehicle pulled up and someone inside shot both men about 2:35 a.m., authorities said.

Hudson, of the 6000 block of South Bell Avenue, died at the scene, according to the medical examiner’s office.

Cotton, of the 9600 block of South Mozart Street in Evergreen Park, died at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County at 4:47 a.m. Sunday, according to the medical examiner’s office.

On Thursday, 21-year-old Shambreyh Barfield and another woman were shot in the 3800 block of West Monroe Street about 4:15 p.m., authorities said.

Barfield, of the 6900 block of South Winchester Avenue, was shot in the head and died at Mount Sinai Hospital less than an hour later, according to the medical examiner’s office. The other woman, 21, was shot in the arm and survived, police said.

On Wednesday, prosecutors claim Randy "Garfield" Ruiz, Jeremy Medina and three others fatally shot 19-year-old Jimero Starling in the 3300 block of West Division Street in the Humboldt Park neighborhood about 6:30 a.m., authorities said.

Starling and his pals were riding their bicycles when the group started shouting gang slogans and questioned them about their gang affiliation, prosecutors said. Starling tried explaining that he was a Latin King as well, but a fight ensued and Ruiz allegedly shot him, prosecutors said.

In West Englewood, 19-year-old Dakari Pargo shot in the head and back in the 7100 block of South Winchester Avenue about 1:45 a.m. Wednesday, authorities said.

Pargo, of the 7300 block of South Damen Avenue, died less than an hour later at Christ Medical Center, according to the medical examiner’s office.

On Tuesday, 16-year-old Lafayette Walton was shot in the 1200 block of North Keeler Avenue at 5:18 p.m., authorities said. Lafayette, of the 2400 block of West Grenshaw Street, died at Mount Sinai Hospital at 6:52 p.m. Wednesday, according to the medical examiner’s office.

The killings started last Monday when 17-year-old Michael Patton was shot in the chest in the 600 block of East 50th Place about 10:40 p.m., authorities said. Michael and a 15-year-old acquaintance were talking with several people in a van when somebody inside opened fire.

Michael, of the 600 block of East 51st Street, died at the scene, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. The 15-year-old was shot in the arm and treated at University of Chicago Comer's Children's Hospital, police said.

Overall, the medical examiner’s office has ruled at least 203 Chicago deaths in 2014 a homicide — including nine people killed by police.

Additionally, the state’s attorney’s office filed first-degree murder charges against a speeding motorist who killed an off-duty police officer while trying to flee police even though the autopsy ruled the death an accident.

Chicago Police, which counts murders different, have ruled some of those homicides as involuntary manslaughter, justified self-defense or accidents.

BY STEFANO ESPOSITO, BRIAN SLODYSKO AND FRANK MAIN
Chicago Sun-Times

Hundreds of extra officers were assigned to Chicago streets this past weekend, Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said, but by Monday morning, the totals were still depressing: 13 dead and at least 58 wounded in shootings across the city.

McCarthy said his department mostly had a grip on the violence during the holiday weekend until Sunday, when there were 21 shooting incidents.

“Yesterday is the day that really blew it up for us,” McCarthy said, speaking to reporters Monday in the Chicago Police Department’s 10th District. He said his department is still analyzing what might have caused the surge in violence.

Statistics may show that Chicago’s homicide rate is down to levels not seen since the 1960s, but that may not comfort residents of the South and West sides, who saw the bulk of the shootings.

By 7 a.m. Monday, 11 people had been killed and at least 60 others wounded in shootings across the city since Thursday night. Two more were fatally shot by police: Pedro Rios, 14, of Rogers Park, on Friday night in the Portage Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side, and Warren Robinson, 16, on Saturday night in the Gresham neighborhood. Police said both boys had pointed weapons at officers.

McCarthy said the weekend violence in the city was “unacceptable,” given the fact that he had a plan in place with “hundreds more officers” assigned to the streets.

“The results were a lot of shootings and a lot of murders,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy, standing beside a cache of recently seized guns and rifles, touched on one of his favorite themes — the lack of punishment in Illinois for people who illegally own guns.

“There’s a greater sanction from the gang members who lose that firearm from their gang than there is to go to jail for possession of that gun,” McCarthy said.

He repeated his frustration that many of the people who threaten his cops with firearms have been previously convicted of gun crimes. He frequently points out that people arrested for gun crimes are often released on bond. And if they’re convicted, they don’t serve serious prison time, he says.

For instance, one man who shot at police Sunday night in the 10200 block of South Morgan was arrested earlier this year for firing a gun, McCarthy said. “How this individual is out on bond is beyond me,” he said.

Also over the weekend on the South Side, police shot and wounded two other men previously convicted of weapons charges, McCarthy said. One of the men pointed a gun at officers Friday and the other man fired his weapon at the police Saturday, he said.

In places such as Englewood, South Shore and Austin, gunshots seemed almost as common as fireworks over the weekend.

Nearly all of those killed over the weekend were black or Hispanic men age 35 or younger. One was a woman.

Meanwhile, just four shootings occurred on the North Side, including one in which police shot the 14-year-old boy.

“Englewood and South Shore had it lit up,” Andrew Holmes, an anti-violence activist who frequently goes to crime scenes and operates an anonymous crime tip hotline, said of the shootings Sunday night. “You had some people that were literally limping to the ambulance. They weren’t waiting.”

Holmes said occasions like the Fourth of July lead to shootings because people are out and about and have lowered inhibitions from alcohol or drugs — sometimes both.

“You have the gang-related shooting, then you have the shootings over drug money,” Holmes said. “Then you have people that may have too much alcohol, too much drugs [who] get into a fight. They’re taking it to an all-time high and they grab a weapon.”

Holmes said anyone who wants to provide an anonymous tip that will be shared with police can call (800) UTELLUS.

Surprisingly, most of the shootings in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side didn’t involve gang conflicts. Instead, “a lot of this was random incidents and nuts shooting their guns for the Fourth of July,” a police source said.

Of the 11 shootings in Englewood, only two are thought to be gang-related, involving an ongoing conflict between factions of the Gangster Disciples, the source said.

A bar fight prompted one of the shooting incidents. And a woman was shot in the leg on the Fourth of July because people near her were firing their guns in celebration.

“How do you stop people from being stupid?” the source said.

The last time the Fourth of July fell on a Friday was in 2008, when seven people were shot to death across the city over the weekend starting at 6 p.m. Thursday and ending at 6 a.m. Monday, according to Cook County medical examiner’s records. One of the victims, 19-year-old Courtney Thomas, was killed in the Loop after the fireworks at the Taste of Chicago, prompting extra security for the event in future years. Police also fatally shot a man that weekend after he fired at officers, according to the department.

The latest fatal shooting happened early Monday, when Joey Henderson, 24, was shot several times in the South Chicago neighborhood. He was shot in the back, right arm, chest and eye less than a block from his home in the 8400 block of South Buffalo Avenue about 2:20 a.m., authorities said. He was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:33 a.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Just a couple of hours before that, Tonya Gunn, 44, was shot to death in a vacant parking lot early Monday in the Morgan Park neighborhood on the Far South Side.

She was leaning against a vehicle in the 10900 block of South Throop Street when shots were fired about 12:30 a.m., police said. She was struck in the left arm and side and taken to Roseland Community Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 1:15 a.m., authorities said.

On Monday evening, Mayor Rahm Emanuel called on the entire city of Chicago to feel the anguish of the weekend’s gun violence.

“No gang member with a gun is more powerful than a community with a purpose and a shared sense of values,” Emanuel said at a new conference held on a basketball court in the Roseland community that offers at-risk youths a safe activity.

“Roseland, when something, God forbid happens here, Ravenswood, where I live, has to feel that sense of anguish,” he said.

Asked why police, even with extra patrols, couldn’t tamp down the violence, Emanuel said: “It’s a fair question, where were the police? What were they doing? I would also say, where are the gun laws?”

Emanuel said McCarthy “is going to analyze all that, but I want you to know that’s not the only question.”

Emanuel’s message was identical to the one he conveyed in front of a national news audience in April, when he spoke at St. Sabrina Church in Englewood after eight people were shot and killed over one weekend.

Earlier Monday in Englewood, during an event celebrating a summer educational program at Miles Davis Magnet School, he said: “It’s totally unacceptable gun violence,” he said. “That is not our city.”

He called for “better policing, better prevention” as well as better parenting and tougher gun laws.

“Our streets, our neighborhoods and our communities belong to the people of the city of Chicago,” Emanuel said.

On Sunday, churchgoers outside Bread of Life Missionary Baptist Church in Englewood had said Emanuel could benefit from spending a little more time in the neighborhood.

Footsteps from the church, Shaquille Ross, 18, was gunned down outside Luke O’Toole Elementary School on Saturday afternoon.

Duvall London, who works security at the church, said police have stepped up with bike patrols that have had some impact. But once police leave, trouble comes right back out on the street, he said.

Churchgoer Roy Swan, who also lives in the neighborhood, said Emanuel breezes through when he visits.

“I would tell him to just hang out a little while,” said Swan, 57. “Don’t just ride through. Stay and observe and stick around a little longer.”

Contributing: Michael Lansu, Sun-Times Media Wire

Anthony Hobson, 25, was fatally shot Saturday night in the Roseland neighborhood. Reader "Kokomac" posted this about the slaying:

This shooting occurred on my block. I'd just settled in to bed when the gun shots rang out. I got out of bed and called for an ambulance upon seeing the young man lying in the street. I too believe that no human being should take their final breath face to concrete and in their own blood like a preyed upon animal. Although I did not know him, I know that this man had a mother, a sister, a family, and friends. He was somebody's child, sibling, and friend. His life had value. Smh.

Tonya Gunn was shot to death early Monday in the Morgan Park neighborhood.

Gunn, 44, was leaning on a vehicle in a vacant lot in the 10900 block of South Throop Street when shots were fired about 12:30 a.m., authorities said.

Gunn was struck in the side and left arm and died less than an hour later at Roseland Community Hospital, authorities said.

Nobody has been charged for the murder.

Area South detectives are investigating.

-- Sun-Times Media Wire

Joey Henderson was fatally shot early Monday in the South Chicago neighborhood.

Henderson, 24, was in the 8400 block of South Buffalo Avenue when he was shot about 2:20 a.m., police said.

Henderson, who lived on the block, was shot in the back, chest, right arm and eye and died at Northwestern Memorial Hospital about an hour later, authorities said.

Nobody has been charged for the murder.

Area South detectives are investigating if the shooting was gang related.

William Allen was killed in the South Chicago neighborhood shooting that left two others wounded early Sunday.

Allen, 25, was with a 47-year-old man and 19-year-old woman near East 80th Street and South Muskegon Avenue when gunfire erupted about 11:20 p.m. Sunday, authorities said.

Allen, of the 3500 block of South State Street, and died at Northwestern Memorial Hospital at 2:27 p.m. Monday, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

The man and woman were also wounded, but survived, police said.

Nobody has been charged for the murder.

-- Sun-Times Media Wire

Area South detectives are investigating.

Cassius White was killed in a drive-by shooting in the Washington Heights neighborhood that also left a teenage boy wounded.

White, 19, and the 16-year-old boy were in the 9600 block of South Sangamon Avenue when shots were fired about 12:30 a.m., authorities said.

White, of the 8200 block of South Dante Avenue, was shot in the abdomen area and died at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn at 5:54 a.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

The 16-year-old was also wounded, but survived, police said.

Nobody has been charged for the murder.

Area South detectives are investigating.

Tonya Gunn / Family photo

BY BRIAN SLODYSKO
Chicago Sun-Times

Tonya Gunn was shot to death on the Morgan Park block where her family has lived for generations.

Gunn was leaning against a car and talking to her cousin after a cookout at her grandfather’s house at South Throop and West 109th streets when gunshots rang out about 12:30 a.m. Monday, police and family said.

The 44-year-old West Pullman woman was shot twice — in the arm and the side — and died a short time later, authorities said.

“As far as her being in the wrong place at the wrong time — I can’t say that,” said Gunn’s cousin, Annette Scott, who was raised alongside Gunn.

“That block,” Scott said, pausing a moment. “My grandfather was born there. Her grandfathers were born on that block as well.”

“It was somewhere which was a safe haven for us,” she continued. “That’s where our family gathered, cooked and played volleyball.”

Scott said she and Gunn were born months apart and were both taught preschool by Gunn’s mother. Later they attended Morgan Park High School together. They have remained close through the years. And they planned a vacation later this month, hoping to catch some R&B acts at the Cincinnati Jazz Festival.

Gunn also leaves behind an 11-year-old daughter, Destiny, Scott said.

“She took pride in raising her child,” said Scott, who added that Gunn kept her daughter busy with sports and martial arts.

For over 20 years, Gunn worked at the University of Chicago, school officials said. Most recently she was a dispatcher who fielded customer service calls for the maintenance department.

“Her work ethic and good-humored manner were appreciated by clients and co-workers alike,” Steve Wiesenthal, an administrator who oversaw Gunn’s department, wrote to employees in an email on Monday. “We are all grief-stricken, and we send our deepest sympathies and condolences to her family and friends.”

As of Monday evening, Chicago Police said no arrests had been made.

Scott said the randomness of the shooting was maddening. It happened not long after Gunn finished grilling skirt steak.

Gunfire erupted from the direction of two cars that were passing by, said Scott, who was not present. Next thing everybody knew, Gunn had been hit.

“It’s a late summer night, out there with our cousins. And that’s it. Shots rang out,” Scott said. “That’s it. It wasn’t a fight. It wasn’t a fight. It wasn’t cross-fire. Two cars drove by and just started shooting.”

BY EMILY BROSIOUS
Homicide Watch Chicago

It has been nearly a year since Andrew Turner was fatally shot in the North Lawndale neighborhood, and his family continues to search for answers as they struggle to cope with their loss.

"It's still unbelievable. It's still fresh to me. And for it still not to be solved, that hurts a lot," said Ebony Scott, Turner's girlfriend and mother of his two oldest children.

Turner was a "family man" who was silly but firm with his children, Scott said. He wanted to raise them to be good men.

"He took care of us," Scott said. "He was my rock."

Turner, 23, of the 1100 block of South Independence Boulevard, was shot in the jaw July 26, 2013, in the 3200 block of West Roosevelt Road, authorities said. He died six days later at Mount Sinai hospital.

"Seeing him in the hospital bed like that, it made me feel numb.” Scott said. “I really thought he was going to make it. I had so much hope. ... When I lost him, I felt like I didn’t want to live anymore. My heart stopped."

Police said Turner had gang affiliations. Scott denied that claim, but admits Turner sold drugs to support his family.

"There’s a lot of rumors ... People hear he was black and he got shot, so they assume things," Scott said. "Everybody's got different ways of making a living. People out here selling a lot of things they shouldn't be selling. But a lot of people doing it for the wrong reasons. Andy did it for his family."

Scott doesn't know why Turner was murdered, but thinks it has something to do with jealousy. She described him as a handsome and smart man with a nice family and nice cars.

"I think they wanted what he had," she said. "People don’t want to see you shine out here. Andy was shining in his glow, and they took him out that glow."

Scott said she had been fearful of dangers associated with Turner's lifestyle, but said he was on good terms with everyone.

"I never thought this would happen,” said Audrey Langston, Turner’s grandmother. “He was a generous spirit and a free spirit ... I miss him so much."

Langston raised Turner and five of his siblings. She remembers him as a shy, well-mannered child.

"People were always telling me how respectful he was," Langston said. "That's rare from young men these days."



Turner was trying to turn his life around before he died, Scott said. He wanted a legitimate career and she tried to help him fill out job applications, she said.

"A lot of people don't know, but Andy was smart. He even went to college and he could of graduated," Scott said. “But he got sidetracked with ‘Oh you’re pregnant, we need money.'"



Scott and Langston both think people in the neighborhood know who shot Turner and ask anyone with information to come forward.

"I just want the detectives to come to my door one day and be like, 'We got him,'" Scott said. "That's all I want. I think about that every day."

Jaynisha Scheffer was shot and killed Monday night in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood.

Scheffer, 19, was walking with a group in the 2200 block of West 69th Street when someone rode up on a bicycle and opened fire at 7:05 p.m., authorities said.

Scheffer, of the 7600 block of South Paulina Street, was shot in the back and taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where she died at 10:11 p.m., authorities said.

Nobody has been charged for the murder.

Area Central detectives are investigating.

-- Sun-Times Media Wire

Richard Magnan / Photo from Chicago Police

BY RUMMANA HUSSAIN
Chicago Sun-Times

An accused gang member who told police he keeps a gun to protect himself from rivals accidentally shot and killed a member of his own gang while waving that weapon around outside a Southwest Side Walgreens over the Fourth of July weekend, Cook County prosecutors said.

Richard Magnan, who has numerous face tattoos, including one that reads, “F--- the world” and a White Sox logo, was friends with Joel Bentley— the man he shot in the early morning hours of July 5, Assistant State’s Attorney Alexandra Molesky said.

Bentley was a member of the 2-6 street gang, Molesky said.

Magnan is also a purported member of the same gang.

Both men were at an Independence Day party before they and another friend walked to the Walgreens parking lot in the 6200 block of South Austin Avenue early Saturday, Molesky said.

Once there, Magnan, of Evergreen Park, went to his truck, grabbed his gun and pointed it to the other two men, Molesky said.

Magnan’s friends told him to put the gun away after he allegedly pulled the slide back and ejected a live round but he refused, Molesky said.

Magnan continued to wave the gun around and held it sideways, Molesky said.

At some point, the gun went off and a bullet struck 30-year-old Bentley in the abdomen, Molesky said.

Bentley, of the 5000 block of South Keating Avenue, died hours later at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Magnan, 35, fled the scene but was arrested Monday in a Willowbrook hotel, according to a police report.

Magnan was identified by witnesses and allegedly admitted shooting his friend.

Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. ordered Magnan held in lieu of $3 million bond Wednesday on a charge of involuntary manslaughter.

Magnan was previously sentenced to eight years in prison for a 2003 attempted murder.

He also has two convictions for possession of a stolen vehicle and a 2004 weapon conviction from Nevada.

BY SCOTT SMITH
Our Man In Chicago

I'm trying to understand the mayor’s mindset when he does things like this:

Emanuel attended an anti-violence vigil in Roseland Monday evening where he said everyone — from parents to police to federal lawmakers — must play a role to curb bloodshed in Chicago.

"A lot of people will say where were the police … and that's a fair question, but not the only question," Emanuel said. "Where are the parents? Where is the community?"

First of all, I don't know how you stand there at a anti-violence rally in a community that lost one of its own in a drive-by shooting two nights prior and ask "Where is the community?" That takes some gall.

I also don’t know how you read about the father of the 14-year-old boy shot in a separate incident and ask “Where are the parents?”

"What happens to kids when they’re not with their parents?” said Susan Diaz, whose daughter married into the Rios family. “The kid was 14 years old. The parents do the best that they can. When the kid walks away — he goes to school, the beach, the park, the library — the gangbangers are hanging around waiting to recruit them. ... That's just the way it is."

When the mayor asks "Where are the parents? Where are the communities?" it implies neither exists where there is gun violence. That’s reductive. And wrong. Especially when the underpinnings of those communities have been ripped apart by lack of economic investment. Gun violence doesn’t start because a kid wakes up and decides not to listen to his parents. It starts when he thinks a gun keeps him alive. And that happens when crime seems like the best – and safest – possible way to earn a living and keep on living.

More police aren't going to solve the problem. But pointing a finger at parents without talking about why parents aren't around? Or the economic reasons why parents alone aren't enough to shout down the other voices kids hear on those streets every day? Not helpful.

When you're the mayor, your rhetoric frames the way people view a situation. Your words make headlines, they lead the evening news. Demonizing an entire community gives fuel to those who think "those people" are all criminals. It lays the blame for crime at the community's collective feet, helps keep "them" at arm's length and convinces people that crime is something that exists in other neighborhoods and won’t affect them.

I"m reminded of last week’s shooting in Lakeview:

The Pride parade revelers who had filled the street earlier were gone, Lane said, and a younger crowd replaced them.

"I doubt any of them was over 30," Lane said. "A lot of them don't live around here. They come from other neighborhoods. It's just the attitude they have, the mentality."

Neighbor Juan Chavez, who's lived in the area since 2007, said "the majority of people who cause trouble don't live in the neighborhood."

People in "safe" Chicago neighborhoods really will go to great lengths to convince themselves that crime isn't a problem where they live. Saying "they come from other neighborhoods" suggests there's a leaky faucet of crime you can just turn off and fix the problem.

Instead, we -- all of us -- need to support crime prevention and economic improvement efforts for all Chicago neighborhoods. Not just our own. That's not easy, I'll admit. But it's the cause of the problem, not a lack of morality or parents or community.

Or to put it another way: morality, parents and community are what get infected by the disease of violence and poverty.

Scott Smith runs the Our Man In Chicago blog. You can follow him on Twitter @ourmaninchicago.

Jasmine Curry / Submitted photo

BY STEFANO ESPOSITO
Chicago Sun-Times

As traffic crawled past the blue minivan with its windows shot out Wednesday morning, Pierre Curry found himself in a horribly familiar situation — getting ready to pick out a casket for one of his children.

About 4 a.m., in the southbound lanes of the Dan Ryan Expressway near 59th Street, an unknown gunman shot one of his daughters, Jasmine Curry, 24 — a pregnant mother of five.

Police were talking to a young woman who was believed to be inside the Dodge Caravan minivan at the time of the shooting, Pierre Curry said investigators have told him. Police were looking to talk to another young man believed to have been in the minivan, Curry said.

Illinois State Police had said they were working with the Chicago Police Department to try to find any other vehicles involved, and by Wednesday afternoon, they announced they were looking for a silver Dodge Intrepid in connection with the shooting.

Pierre Curry said he isn’t sure why his daughter was driving so late at night, except perhaps to visit some friends in the area. He said his daughter — five months’ pregnant — was due to start a new job at the Ford City Mall Wednesday.

A weary-looking Curry lost a 17-year-old son to gun violence last August — shot in the head, he said, just like his daughter.

“I just don’t understand young people in Chicago today,” said the 45-year-old, who has three other children. “They don’t give a damn. They ain’t got no heart.”

Jasmine’s children, ranging in age from one to nine, are staying with a grandmother, Pierre Curry said.

Illinois State Police called the shooting “an isolated incident.”

Police said the shots were fired as the Dodge was southbound on the Dan Ryan somewhere between 55th and 59th street. Three people were inside the minivan at the time, with two of them escaping uninjured, police said.

The minivan belonged to Curry, and she often used it to take her children to school and daycare, her cousin, Ieshia Curry, said.

“She was a sweet person, she was kind, outgoing,” said Ieshia Curry, 19. “She would do anything for anybody.”

Police were still interviewing witnesses and checking footage from surveillance cameras in the area early Wednesday, State Police Capt. Luis Gutierrez said.

Southbound local lanes of the highway were closed in the vicinity of the shooting for several hours Wednesday morning but had reopened by early Wednesday afternoon.

Jasmine Curry’s death comes slightly less than a year after her brother Pierce L. Curry was fatally shot while riding in a vehicle on the South Side in the early morning hours of Aug. 27, 2013.

Pierce Curry, 17, was in the back seat of a car when gunfire errupted from another car in the 6200 block of South State Street, police said. A single bullet struck Curry in the head, police said.

As Pierre Curry waited beneath the rusting L tracks along the Dan Ryan for information about his daughter’s killing, he saw no end to the plague of violence on the South Side.

“I ain’t scared of these fools out here. They took two of my children,” he said. “It ain’t going to stop with mine. It’s going to keep going on and on.”

Courtney Watson / Photo from Chicago Police

BY MICHAEL LANSU
Homicide Watch Chicago Editor

Courtney Watson was ordered held without bond Wednesday for allegedly shooting his mother's longtime boyfriend last month in their Austin neighborhood home.

Watson, 31, is accused of fatally shooting 46-year-old Andre Knight behind their home in the 4800 block of West Concord Place about 4 a.m. June 23, authorities said.

Prosecutors said Knight had been dating Watson's mother for about 15 years, and the three lived together in the Austin home.

Knight became suspicious that Watson stole his identity, and the two had an ongoing dispute, prosecutors said.

Just before the shooting, Knight left his home to go to his newspaper delivery job, but when his car parked on the street didn’t start he went to a car in the garage and was shot moments later, family and neighbors said. His girlfriend heard a gunshot and saw her son run into the home, prosecutors said.

Responding officers found Knight dead in his car with a gunshot wound to the head, prosecutors said. The revolver used in the shooting was found inside a bag in the garage.

Knight was declared dead at Mount Sinai Hospital less than an hour later, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Watson initially told police a gunman entered the garage, shot Knight in the head, dropped the gun and ran away. Watson said he panicked and hid the gun in the garage, prosecutors said.

Watson later changed his story and said he wanted to kill himself and Knight tried taking the gun from him, and the shooting happened during a struggle, prosecutors said.

After the shooting, Watson immediately washed his clothes and told police "that is how [he] deals with stress," prosecutors said.

After initially being interviewed, Watson complained of pains and attempted to stab a paramedic with scissors en route to the hospital, prosecutors said. He also hit and kicked the paramedic and a detective in the ambulance, prosecutors said. He was charged with aggravated battery to a police officer and paramedic and held on $100,000 bond.

He was also sentenced to probation for a 2011 burglary case.

Jasmine Curry was fatally shot on the Dan Ryan Expressway Wednesday morning. Her father talks about the loss:

Police investigate a July 6 shooting / Photo by Alex Wroblewski

BY RICK TELANDER
Chicago Sun-Times Sports Columnist

Some things stop you in your tracks, even if you're just a sportswriter.

Over the Fourth of July weekend in Chicago, 13 people were killed and 58 wounded from gun violence.

We’re talking from Thursday to early Monday morning.

Stunned local and national news outlets compared Chicago to a war zone — an ongoing war zone, that is, because the carnage never seems to end and the same editorials about reckless gun violence in this city seem to be produced month after month, year after year.

I almost chuckled, ruefully.

Chicago is worse than a war zone.

In the small areas of greatest danger — pockets of the South and West sides — a warm summer night creates something akin to a free fire zone. The enemy is anybody, everybody.

The United States lost 120 troops last year in Afghanistan — to all forms of violence. We lost 301 soldiers in 2012, 412 in 2011 and 496 in 2010, the height of the war effort for us in Afghanistan. In the 14 years we have been fighting in that country, as of June 24, 2014, we have lost a total of 2,233 troops.

Chicago dwarfs that carnage.

Just since 2009, there have been 2,418 homicides here. And counting. We average somewhere between 400 and 500 killings a year, so do the math. In a decade, we’re sending nearly 5,000 citizens to the graveyard, mostly from gun violence.

It’s crazy. Incomprehensible.

The vast majority of the victims and shooters are black males under the age of 35. Kind of like the demographics of the NBA.

It makes one wonder if the great, coveted Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James and other NBA free agents are aware of what goes on here in Englewood and Auburn Gresham and Roseland when the guns are out.

It makes me wonder if they would care at all, as they make up their prissy, mercenary minds about which team and community deserves their services, about how things roll here. Makes me wonder if they should care.

It's not their problem, you know. And they’d have no need ever to be in a bad part of Chicago — except for those random public-service and charity visits concocted by the Bulls or the players’ handlers for the goodwill benefits and daylight, well-protected camera moments.

That's how it is.

We live in a more stratified country — and city — than seems possible under the graces of democracy. The destruction of the middle class and the possibilities it once promised continues unabated, for reasons that are complex and also simple — machines do the grunt work and, increasingly, the mindful work, too — so that young, poor folks are left only with dreams. And tiny little worlds of machismo and bullets.

It’s fitting that Mayor Rahm Emanuel gave his speech of disgust after the bloody weekend on an outdoor South Side basketball court. He asked where the parents were, the community, the gun laws.

Chicago Police chief Garry McCarthy had sent out hundreds of extra policemen for the holiday — the first Fourth of July to fall on a Friday in six years — and it made no difference. Or, if it did, you hate to think how many killings there might have been.

Bulls star Derrick Rose is from Englewood, the heart of the infestation, and it still seems a marvel that he made it out of the neighborhood physically unscathed. After all, none of this killing is new. I remember too well when Ben Wilson, the No. 1 high school player in the nation, was shot and killed not far from Simeon High School, which he attended.

Rose went to Simeon, too, and he wore jersey No. 25 during his career there to honor Wilson.

There were protests about gun violence and huge street marches back then, but nothing changed. That was nearly three decades ago, and here we are.

One of Rose's best friends growing up, Arsenio Williams, a college player who came back to Englewood after school to do charity work, told me the only sure way to avoid the violence was to move away, to leave Chicago.

Not long after we talked, he was shot seven times in a drive-by. We talked again as he recovered at Christ Advocate Hospital.

"It's a trap," he said of the situation for poor black males. "You're gonna die. You're trapped."

Man.

Davis Arna / Photo from Cook County Sheriff's office

BY JORDAN OWEN
Sun-Times Media

Davis Arna has been charged with murder more than a year after he shot romantic rival Maurice Wooden, prosecutors said.

On Wednesday, Judge Adam Bourgeois ordered Arna, 38, held without bond.

Prosecutors said Wooden, 51, got into an argument with his live-in girlfriend in their apartment in the 9600 block of South Halsted Street on May 20, 2013. He left the apartment after the dispute, but returned later that day and the argument continued in their bedroom, prosecutors said.

Arna, who was also romantically involved with the woman, then knocked on the door, prosecutors said.

Wooden answered and quickly shut the door, prosecutors said. Arna responded by allegedly firing four shots through the closed door, then knocking the door onto Wooden.

Arna then shot Wooden four more times before running away, prosecutors said.

Wooden was struck in his shoulders, neck and armpit, and was left paralyzed from the waist down, prosecutors said. He identified Arna as the shooter in a photo array, and witnesses identified him as being near the apartment shortly after the shooting.

Wooden died at Kindred Chicago Central Hospital at 5:55 a.m. June 17, more than a year after the shooting, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

An autopsy found Wooden died of complications of multiple gunshot wounds and ruled his death a homicide, according to the medical examiner’s office. Diabetes and heart disease were also listed as secondary factors.