July 01--Yolanda Stevenson remembers standing in front of her grandmother's Englewood neighborhood home, greeting guests for a small gathering on the Fourth of July last year.
She was chatting with friends when shots rang out.
The 35-year-old mother tried to stay calm, taking deep breaths, as an ambulance rushed her to a hospital. She had been shot in the right leg, another innocent victim of gang violence.
"I was like, 'God, I need you right now,'" she recalled recently. "I was in a lot of pain so I kept asking, 'Are we there yet?'"
The Fourth of July weekend is a time of festive celebrations for many, a time to join friends and family, a time to shoot off fireworks, grill outside, mark the nation's birth and enjoy the summer. This year, Chicago expects hundreds of thousands to come downtown, commuters from the suburbs and beyond, not only to see fireworks at Navy Pier but also to attend sold-out Grateful Dead shows at Soldier Field.
But in some of Chicago's more dangerous neighborhoods, the holiday also ushers in anxiety and fear as many brace for the seemingly inevitable violence.
Some residents on the South and West sides won't be taking any chances, packing up their families for the weekend and heading for hopefully safer locales. Stevenson and her children, for one, plan to abandon the family tradition of hanging out at grandma's house and instead will hide out at a resort and water park some 70 miles away.
Many who remain will navigate carefully, bringing their families indoors shortly after nightfall, confining their celebrations to their own yards or keeping a close watch for signs of trouble.
Chicago police, theirs ranks stretched by the simultaneous demands of dealing with the anticipated violence and keeping control of crowds expected for festivities downtown, have extended the work hours for thousands of officers over the long weekend.
Even trauma doctors are preparing mentally for the added wounded the holiday often brings them.
The dark side to the holiday has been evident over recent Fourth of July weekends. Last year, at least 14 people were killed and about 66 others were wounded over 3 1/2 days. Police also killed two in shootings that weekend. The numbers were lower in 2013 -- more than 70 were shot, 11 fatally.
And this year the volatile holiday weekend comes as Chicago struggles with violence already surpassing that of the first half of 2015. Through June 25, homicides and shootings rose sharply, both up more than 20 percent over a year earlier, according to department records. Homicides hit 200 on that date, up from 166 a year earlier, while shooting incidents have exceeded 1,015, up from 842.
In the Englewood District, traditionally one of Chicago's most violent and the scene of Stevenson's shooting last Fourth of July, shooting incidents have risen to 138, up 66 percent from 83 a year earlier. Through June 25, the district has the most homicides -- 17, tied with the Chicago Lawn District -- up from 14 a year earlier, department records show.
While homicides remain far below tallies of the early to mid-1990s, when they peaked at more than 900 a year, Chicago's violence has stubbornly remained higher in recent years than New York City and Los Angeles. While both coastal cities have seen an uptick in violence this year, more people have been shot in Chicago so far in 2015 than New York and LA combined, records show.
John Lott Jr., president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, said one reason that gun violence persists in Chicago is that so many homicides and shootings go unsolved.
"Part of the problem is you have so much gang violence, and gang violence is hard to solve," Lott said from his Pennsylvania office. "When you have two gangs fighting, you are not going to have people come forward to help."
Robert Tracy, the Police Department's chief of crime control strategies, said recent Fourth of July weekends have averaged close to 50 shooting incidents and 10 homicides.
"When more people are out ... this is a time of the year that really kicks things off -- the interactions between people that might have disputes or conflicts, which unfortunately they resolve with gunfire," he said.
For the upcoming weekend, Tracy said, the department will make sure there's enough staffing to handle any violence that may erupt while also dealing with the huge crowds for fireworks and the Grateful Dead concerts. Thousands of officers will work shifts of up to 12 hours, up from their usual 8 1/2-hour shifts, likely significantly boosting overtime costs.
As for the increase in violence so far in 2015, Tracy said there's "no magic formula" for determining what crime-fighting strategies best combat violence. He said the department needs to be ready to deploy officers to the right places and try its best to stay ahead of the gang conflicts before they get out of control.
"Unfortunately, there's more conflicts that are going on at the same time," he said. "We continue to adjust. We improvise in what we're doing."
At Advocate Christ Medical Center in suburban Oak Lawn, the doctors, nurses and staff are already bracing for what promises to be a fast-paced weekend in the emergency room. In 2012, a third surgeon on call had to be brought in to handle the crush of patients, a rare move, according to Dr. James C. Doherty, who directs the trauma department.
"When you're on for the Fourth ... we all know it's going to be busy," Doherty said. "We have to get ourselves psychologically ready for the workload and the sheer volume we're going to have. It's going to be a busy night, a busy day.
"We do tend to try to staff heavily with (medical) residents because we need the manpower," he said
According to Doherty's own research, the hospital's trauma unit has seen about a 20 percent increase over the average day in patient visits to its emergency room in each of the last three July Fourths. Violence accounts for about half that increase, he said, while the rest of the patients have been injured in fireworks-related accidents or car crashes.
"Even if it's on a weekday, the Fourth of July behaves more like a weekend," he said. "We see more gunshot wounds and stab wounds."
At a recent Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy meeting in the Englewood District, much of the conversation focused on overgrown lots and trees that needed to be trimmed. But Renee Collins, a longtime resident and neighborhood activist, wasn't about to let the meeting end without bringing up strategies to prevent violence over the upcoming holiday weekend.
Near her house, longtime families rooted in the community gather near a vacant lot on the Fourth of July to party and set off fireworks, she said at the meeting.
"But after it's all over, there's shooting," Collins said. "What can we do to stop it? I just don't want to see anybody hurt this Fourth of July."
No one offered a solution.
Some community leaders, activists and clergy on the South Side plan to hold organized events over the weekend in hopes of curtailing the violence.
At St. Sabina Catholic Church in the Gresham neighborhood, the Rev. Michael Pfleger plans to walk with men from his congregation, talking to residents about keeping safe during the holiday, he said. The Rev. Dwayne Grant of Teamwork Englewood has organized a prayer vigil and small festival in Englewood to start the weekend with a theme of peace, he said.
But for past victims of violence on this festive weekend, it is hard to put the ordeal behind them -- and to enjoy the holiday in quite the same way.
Two years ago on July 5, Karl Miller was sitting on his front stoop in Englewood early in the morning when he heard the sound of gunshots punctuate the air. It wasn't until two gunmen were standing in front of his gate, firing at him and his friend, that he realized they were the targets of the shooting, he said.
"Hit me three times," said Miller, who is now 21. "I grabbed my (friend), I opened the door and ran upstairs. I told my sister, 'I got shot.'"
Miller, who grew up in south suburban Lansing and has lived with his father in Englewood for five years, thinks the shooting was a case of mistaken identity.
This Fourth of July weekend, he'll likely spend much of his time inside his family's apartment, as he often does since the shooting. He no longer likes to sit out on the porch, and when he wants to hang out or play basketball, he tries to leave the neighborhood.
"I always ask why did this happen to me?" Miller said. "I don't want to be one of these people who get killed out here."
Yolanda Stevenson still remembers her shooting vividly.
The mother of three teens was standing outside, feeling festive as she chatted with a friend from work and his wife. Her children were in the yard, eager for their chance to light fireworks.
"I told them at 10:30 p.m. they could start popping fireworks," she said.
But before they could, a group of men emerged from a nearby gangway and opened fire at a group at another house. Those under fire shot back.
Stevenson took a bullet to the right leg in the crossfire. The road to recovery has been a difficult one. Stevenson laid on her couch for weeks, relying on her children to help her with the most basic tasks.
She had to endure months of physical therapy in order to learn to walk again. She still has bullet fragments in her leg, and a metal rod stretches from her hip to her knee. But she no longer needs a walker and cane to get about, though she still has trouble standing for extended periods, she said.
She hasn't been able to return to work at her warehouse job. Every day, she said, she suffers from chronic pain.
"I cried many days because I felt helpless," said Stevenson, her voice cracking as tears ran down her face. "My whole life stopped. I can't go to work. I couldn't walk down the stairs. I couldn't go and drive my car. I couldn't do everything I was used to doing on a regular basis."
A day never passes without her being reminded of the shooting and its aftermath, but she finds a grim sliver of optimism from that fateful day.
There were "babies outside," she said, "and I was happy that it was my leg and not one of their heads."
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