By JEFF MAYES
Homicide Watch Chicago
Sun-Times file photo by Ashlee Rezin
The long Fourth of July weekend went out with a deadly bang last week, with at least 8 people killed in the last 10 hours of the four-day holiday period.
For the period from late Friday, JUne 30, through Wednesday morning, July 5, at least 12 people were killed and 87 others wounded in shootings across Chicago.
Last year’s Independence Day weekend, which was one day shorter than this year’s, ended with 66 people shot, four of them fatally—a total that actually stoked cautious optimism at the time as it marked the lowest death toll for the July 4 weekend in nearly a decade.
Eight of the people who died this year were among 36 people shot across the city in an 10-hour span of violence between about 5 p.m. Tuesday and 3 a.m. Wednesday.
- It started with a man struck by a stray bullet Tuesday evening in the Riverdale neighborhood on the Far South Side. Witnesses told investigators that 21-year-old Aaron Gordon was shot by someone firing from a light-colored sedan into another vehicle at 5:18 p.m. in the 200 block of East 132nd St., according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Gordon was sitting in a vehicle parked nearby when he was shot in his face, police said. He was not thought to be the intended target. He was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead at 6:39 p.m. He lived in south suburban County Club Hills.
- One man was killed and another was wounded in an Austin neighborhood shooting three hours later on the West Side. About 8:15 p.m., someone fired shots from a vehicle in the 1600 block of North Major, according to police. Tyrone Burdine, 56, was standing in front of a home and was struck in the head by a stray bullet, police and the medical examiner’s office said. Burdine, who lives in the neighborhood, was taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where he was pronounced dead at 12:43 a.m. Wednesday. He was not thought to be an intended target of the shooting. A 19-year-old man walking on the street was shot in the back, police said. He was also taken to Loyola, where he was listed in serious condition.
Five days later, two teenagers were charged with murder and attempted murder for the shootings. Darius Coakley, 18, and Devin Sanders, 17, were charged on Friday. each face one count of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder, according to Chicago Police. Coakley, of Austin, was ordered held without bond at the Cook County Jail, according to Cook County sheriff’s records. Court information for Sanders was not immediately available because he is a juvenile.
- One man was killed and two others wounded in a shooting four later early in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side. The three were standing on the sidewalk at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday in the 300 block of East 47th when someone fired shots, according to police. Shedrick Joel McPherson Jr., 31, suffered multiple gunshot wounds, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. He was dropped off at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He lived in Avalon Park. A 45-year-old was shot in the chest and was taken to Stroger Hospital, where his condition was stabilized, police said. The third man, 33, walked into Mercy Hospital with a gunshot wound to the abdomen and was transferred to Stroger in critical condition.
- About 25 minutes later, one man was killed and another injured in a shooting in the West Garfield Park neighborhood. They were standing in an alley at 12:26 a.m. in the 4000 block of West Lake when someone fired shots in their direction, according to police. Jerame E. Moore, 30, was shot in the head and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. He lived in the South Deering neighborhood on the Far South Side. A 37-year-old man also suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the side of his body and was taken to Stroger Hospital, where his condition was stabilized, police said.
- Two men were killed and two others wounded in a shooting about half an hour later in the Far South Side Roseland neighborhood. Maurice Anthony Willis, 33; and Derwin Moore, 35, were standing on the sidewalk with the other men at 1:17 a.m. in front of a house in the 11000 block of South Eberhart when several males in a black SUV fired shots, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Willis, of the West Pullman neighborhood; and Moore, who lived a block from the shooting, were both pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said. One had been shot in the chest, while the other was shot in the back. A 29-year-old man who was shot in the right wrist was taken to Roseland Community Hospital, while a 37-year-old man with a gunshot wound to the right arm was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, police said. Both of their conditions were stabilized.
- Half hour later, a man was killed in a Gresham neighborhood shooting on the South Side. Devonte M. Morgan, 21, was standing on the street at 1:44 a.m. in the 7900 block of South Paulina when someone walked up and fired shots, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Morgan was shot in the back and was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead at 3:05 a.m. He lived in the Park Manor neighborhood.
- About two hours later, a man was shot to death in Englewood. Robert Hicks, 42, was found on the sidewalk with multiple gunshot wounds at 3:32 a.m. in the 6200 block of South Laflin, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Hicks was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He lived in the West Chesterfield neighborhood.
Overall, at least 15 people were killed during the week.
- The week's final killed was a man shot in a drive-by Sunday evening in Brighton Park. The man and a woman, both 34, were in a vehicle at 7:52 p.m. in the 3600 block of South Western when someone fired shots from a dark-colored SUV that pulled up next to them, according to police. Michael Robert Gonzalez and the woman were both shot multiple times in the body and were taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where Gonzalez died at 8:26 p.m. The woman was listed in critical condition, authorities said. Gonzalez lived in the Pilsen neighborhood.
- A 22-year-old man was stabbed to death Sunday afternoon at the 95th Street Red Line station on the Far South Side. Corvel Brown was stabbed in the abdomen during an argument in front of the turnstile at the station in the 0-100 block of West 95th Street at 12:37 p.m., according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Brown, who lived several blocks away, was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he died at 2:36 p.m. The attacker got away, police said.
- A 27-year-old man was shot to death late Saturday in Englewood. Gregory D. Johnson was in an argument with another man in the parking lot of a gas station in the 6600 block of South Halsted at 11:18 p.m. when the suspect pulled a handgun and fired shots, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Johnson suffered gunshot wounds to the right shoulder and right arm, and was taken to St. Bernard Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He lived in Englewood.
- A woman was shot to death Thursday evening in the West Side Humboldt Park neighborhood. Francine Lowery, 23, was found with multiple gunshot wounds by officers responding to a call of a person shot about 6:30 p.m. in the 4400 block of West Haddon, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Lowery, of the Far South Side Roseland neighborhood, was pronounced dead at the scene.
- A 30-year-old man was killed in a shooting near his Gresham neighborhood home Thursday evening on the South Side. Jonathan Halbert was outside about 6:10 p.m. in the 8200 block of South Carpenter when two people walked up to him from an alley and shot him in the legs and shoulders, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Halbert was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he died at 6:59 p.m.
- A 19-year-old man was killed Thursday morning in another Gresham shooting. William D. Moore was sitting in a vehicle at 11:02 a.m. in the 8500 block of South Justine when a black SUV drove up and someone inside fired shots, striking him multiple times, according to police and medical examiner's office. He was found in the vehicle by responding officers, and pronounced dead at the scene.
- A Calumet City woman is charged with fatally stabbing a man Wednesday afternoon in his Washington Heights neighborhood home on the Far South Side. Ramona Howard, 59, faces a charge of first-degree murder in the attack, believed to be domestic in nature, police said. Officers were called to an apartment about 2 p.m. Wednesday in the 800 block of West 103rd Street and found 63-year-old Kelvin Harper unresponsive with multiple stab wounds, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Harper was pronounced dead at the scene. Howard was ordered held without bond.