May 29--Less than 12 hours after her daughter was shot to death on Lake Shore Drive, Diana Mercado wept bitterly outside her family's apartment as she said she'd planned to get her 15-year-old daughter out of Chicago in a year.
"Now they took my baby," she said.
Her daughter, Veronica Lopez, was the youngest of three people killed over the first night of the Memorial Day weekend. Others killed included a man in his 20s slain in front of his mother's house on the Southwest Side and another young man gunned down inside a gas station on the Northwest Side. The early toll of weekend violence also included 12 wounded during a span of eight hours, between 9:25 p.m. Friday and 5:15 a.m. Saturday. Last year, 12 people were killed and 44 people were wounded over the holiday weekend.
"There's really no stopping it," said Niko Quintero,18, a friend of Lopez and her family.
Veronica was riding in a Jeep with a 28-year-old man about 1:30 a.m. when someone in a black Nissan pulled up and fired, police said. Lopez was hit several times and the man was grazed in the head and shot through the arm, police said.
The man drove to Presence St. Joseph Hospital and the girl was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead just before 3 a.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
The man, who could not be reached for comment, initially told officers the shooting happened on Lake Shore Drive near Fullerton Avenue, then later said Recreation Drive near Belmont Avenue, police said. It was not clear whether police found a crime scene at either location. The medical examiner listed the address as 2400 N. Lake Shore Drive.
The girl's mother, Mercado, stopped briefly Saturday afternoon at the family's home above a storefront in the Belmont-Cragin neighborhood. She said she had planned to relocate to Florida with the girl, a freshman at North-Grand High School. Someone was shot in the alley behind their home last week, Mercado said.
Diana Mercado said little about the man her daughter was with during the shooting, other than that he was her daughter's friend.
"My baby was not even in a gang to be killed," she said. "I just loved my daughter, and I miss everything about her."
Asked about her daughter's killer, Mercado said she hoped the shooter would be caught.
Lopez was the baby of the family and is survived by four siblings -- two sisters, 18 and 19, and two brothers who are older, according to community activist Andrew Holmes.
The first homicide of the weekend happened three hours earlier, about 11:20 p.m., in the 3700 block of West 75th Place, police said. Someone on foot shot a 25-year-old man who was sitting in a parked car, police said. The car rolled east a little and came to rest in front of the house of the man's mother, according to neighbors and police.
The third overnight fatal shooting occurred around 5:15 a.m. inside a BP gas station at the corner of Narragansett and Montrose avenues on the Northwest Side in the Dunning neighborhood, police said. A 23-year-old man was arguing with two other men, and one of them shot him in the head. The man died on the scene.
No one was reported in custody in any of the fatal shootings.
The first shooting of the weekend occurred about 9:25 p.m. in the University Village neighborhood.
An 18-year-old man was standing on a porch in the 1200 block of West Grenshaw Street when a dark sedan drove past and someone fired, police said. The 18-year-old was hit in both legs and his condition was stabilized at Stroger Hospital. Another man was injured but was not struck by a bullet, police said.
Tim Miller, 24, who helped the two men, said he and three friends were hanging out on the steps when they saw a male running toward them in the alley directly across from them and two other males running south on South Racine Avenue.
"They were saying, 'Help, I got shot!' And we didn't really believe them at first," Miller said. "Then we saw blood."
Miller and his friends had the two sit on their stoop while one of his friends called 911 and the others went inside to get towels and ice packs. Miller said one was shot in the left thigh and the other had serious facial injuries and was "going in and out of consciousness."
About a dozen people stood at the stoop of Miller's apartment while the two were transported. Some were crying and others were on the phone.
"This has been too much," said one woman as another woman embraced her.
The group of people quickly dispersed as each ambulance left. Miller and his friends watched as police officers went into an alley nearby.
"We didn't expect it obviously because you know how people will just say random things sometimes? So we were like, 'Oh, what is he doing?'" said Johanna Dibuz, 23 who lives in the building. "But then it was real and we were obviously shocked."
In other shootings:
--A 24-year-old man was shot in the 4300 block of West West End Avenue about 4:35 a.m. Police found the man slumped against a wrought iron fence with a phone pressed to his ear in the 4400 block of West Washington Boulevard. He was bleeding from his head and arm, and was taken to Stroger Hospital in good condition.
--A few blocks away, someone shot a 26-year-old man in the 4600 block of West Jackson Boulevard about 4 a.m. He was taken to Stroger Hospital in good condition, police said.
--About 3:15 a.m., a 25-year-old man was shot in the Back of the Yards neighborhood. He suffered a leg wound while standing outside in the 4600 block of South Honore Street and was taken to Stroger Hospital in good condition, police said.
--A 21-year-old man in a car was shot about 2:55 a.m. in the Albany Park neighborhood. Police said the car was traveling in the 4300 block of North Kimball Avenue when someone fired into the car, hitting the man in his clavicle. He was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in serious condition, police said.
--A 17-year-old boy was shot in the leg in the Lawndale neighborhood about 2:35 a.m. The boy was wounded in the 1200 block of South Independence Boulevard and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in good condition with a leg wound, police said.
--Three men in their 20s were shot in the East Garfield Park neighborhood about 1:45 a.m., police said. The three were in the 3400 block of West Walnut Avenue when someone in a passing car opened fire, police said. A 26-year-old was shot in the leg and taken to Stroger hospital, and a 27-year-old was shot in the thigh and taken to Stroger. Both were listed as stable, police said. The youngest, 23, was the most seriously wounded. He was shot in the back and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in guarded condition.
--Two people were shot in the 9900 block of South Paxton Avenue about 1:10 a.m. A 50-year-old man on a porch was grazed in the right forearm, and a 53-year-old woman in bed inside the home was shot in the lower back. She was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center and the man refused treatment at the scene. At least one person outside fired toward the man, hitting him and the woman inside the home.
dhinkel@chicagotribune.com, @dhinkel
pnickeas@chicagotribune.com, @PeterNickeas
gwong@chicagotribune.com, @GraceWong630
