CHICAGO _ Gun violence in Chicago tapered down on the second night of the long Fourth of July weekend, which saw seven people shot _ one fatally _ and the mayor briefly riding along with officers patrolling the Englewood neighborhood.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot made an appearance at the 7th District's roll call late Friday after the overnight officers began their shift at 10 p.m., according to a tweet from Chicago police. She also rode along inside a marked squad car "to see firsthand how 7th District Officers and the residents of Englewood interact," the tweet said.
The Englewood neighborhood was quiet Friday night to early Saturday, save for residents popping fireworks in backyards. In fact, no shootings were reported anywhere on the South Side since Friday morning, when at least 18 people were hit by gunfire throughout the city.
The city's West Side saw the most gun violence overnight, including a man killed in a double shooting Friday in the Austin neighborhood.
About 7 p.m., two men were standing on a sidewalk in the 300 block of North Laramie when they were fired upon by two gunmen who got out of a grey sedan, police said.
Tory Terry, 40, was struck in the abdomen and pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital. The other man, 65, was shot in the head, face and right arm. He remained in critical condition at Stroger, police said. No arrests have been made.
Yellow and red police tape stretched around the posts underneath CTA's Laramie station for hours Friday night and closed off the parking lot to a cellphone store and daycare center. At least 23 yellow evidence markers were scattered on the ground by a discarded black hat and a blue-and-silver bicycle. Officers navigated pedestrians around the crime scene at Laramie Avenue and Lake Street, where blood pooled on the sidewalk near the bus stop.
No citywide gun violence was reported for over six hours afterward, but another West Side shooting left two men wounded in a drive-by attack early Saturday in the East Garfield Park neighborhood.
About 1:40 a.m., the 32-year-old and 25-year-old were shot by someone in a vehicle while the pair stood on a sidewalk in the 3300 block of West Maypole, police said. The older man was hit in the jaw, chest, abdomen and leg, while the other was shot in the foot. Both were taken to Stroger Hospital.
The subsequent crime scene drew out several residents who lived on the west end of that block, next to Garfield Park. Other neighbors who lived within the crime scene approached the red police tape, waiting to ask an officer to wave them through. "I don't feel safe," one woman muttered after being told to wait on the sidewalk for a short while.
Another resident said she was changing her baby's diaper when she heard so many popping sounds that she believed they had to be fireworks. The bangs sounded like they were right outside her house; although, after venturing outside as police cars rushed down the street, she saw the shell casings were scattered half a block east, she said.
The woman said she's lived here for 30 years, but avoids that side of the block due to suspected gang and drug activity. She declined to be identified for fear of retribution, repeating, "It's rough down there."
In other shootings, a man was wounded in a drive-by attack later Saturday morning in the Belmont Central neighborhood on the Northwest Side. The 32-year-old was walking on the sidewalk around 3:40 a.m. in the 6200 block of West Fullerton when someone opened fire, striking him in the abdomen. He was taken to Loyola Medical Center in Maywood, where his condition was stabilized, police said.
Most recently, the West Side saw its third double shooting within 10 hours. About 5 a.m., two men were shot during an argument in front of a vehicle in the 3400 block of West Fulton in East Garfield Park. Bullets struck a 33-year-old in the stomach and back and a 32-year-old in the groin. They were taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, with the older man's condition listed as critical, police said.
