A 22-year-old man was found shot in the face and unresponsive this morning on Chicago’s South Side.
Jovan Kelly, of the 8600 block of South Paxton Avenue, was pronounced dead this morning, according to a spokeswoman for the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Police are investigating, according to the Trib.
Any fool can shoot a gun. Put away your guns and talk to each other. That’s a skill worth developing.
Bystanders flagged down a CTA bus for help after a man and a woman were critically shot on the West Side Saturday night.
Both victims, in their mid-20s, were taken from Cermak Road and Rockwell Street to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition at about 7:35 p.m. Saturday night, Fire Media Affairs spokesman Quention Curtis said.
The driver of an eastbound #21 Cermak bus called for help to assist a single person who had been shot, and no shots were fired on the bus, said CTA spokesperson Sheila Gregory.
After the bus pulled over, the male victim, who was not a passenger when he was shot, then got onto the bus, said police News Affairs Officer Daniel O’Brien.
Two pools of blood were seen splattered onto the steps inside the entrance area of the bus, which was still parked at the intersection of Cermak Road and Rockwell Street as of 9 p.m. No blood was seen on the seats inside the bus.
A woman also suffered a side graze wound to the chest, said police at the scene of the shooting.
Two pools of human blood, an image no one should have to see in our society.
Any fool can shoot a gun. Put away your guns and talk to each other. That’s a skill worth developing.
Authorities say eight teenage boys were shot while leaving a Gary, Ind., skating rink where they were attending a concert.
Police Cpl. Gabrielle King says "chaos broke loose" when a fight erupted Friday night event at World of Skates. Police say the shooting started in the parking lot.
The victims were taken to three area hospitals, where some remained Saturday. Police say they ranged in age from 14 to 18, with wounds in the legs, wrist, stomach or back. King said injuries weren’t believed to be life-threatening.
Any fool can shoot a gun. Put away your guns and talk to each other. That’s a skill worth developing.
A 15-year-old student was shot in the back Tuesday afternoon just two blocks from a Southwest Side high school — one of 38 schools in the city receiving federal funding as part of a new anti-violence campaign.
The shooting happened at 63rd Street and Springfield Avenue at 1:05 p.m., police News Affairs Officer Veejay Zala said. A 15-year-old boy suffered a gunshot wound to the back, but ran in the direction of Hubbard High School at 6200 S. Hamlin Ave. and was attended to by an ambulance there.
Fire Media Affairs Chief Kevin MacGregor said one person was transported in serious to critical condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
Police said the boy was later listed in “stable” condition.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the victim, and we hope the shooter is brought to justice soon. May this be the last.
When will it stop?
The sad news from the Chicago Sun-Times:
Eleven-year-old Aston Wise was a passenger in a sport-utility vehicle parked on a South Shore street Friday night when a masked gunman opened fire with a shotgun, killing Aston and critically wounding his father.
Aston, of the 6800 block of South East End Avenue, was shot in the head in the 7800 block of South Kingston, police said. He was pronounced dead on the scene, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Aston was a sixth-grader at Martha Ruggles Elementary School, 7831 S. Prairie, Chicago Public Schools spokeswoman Monique Bond said.
Police Supt. Jody Weis said detectives are investigating if the shooting was connected to a relative with gang ties.
Weis said Aston had a half brother in the Black Disciplines street gang and that there has been “low-key” conflict between the Black Disciplines and the Gangster Disciples. Police are also looking into the possibility of a carjacking, Weis said.
“We won’t really know until we get a chance to talk with the father,” Weis said. No arrests had been made as of Saturday night.
Another one of our children cut down, this time by a coward with a shotgun.
Maurice Clemmons, the 37-year-old Tacoma man being sought for questioning in the killing this morning of four Lakewood police officers, has a long criminal record punctuated by violence, erratic behavior and concerns about his mental health.
Nine years ago, then-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee granted clemency to Clemmons, commuting his lengthy prison sentence over the protests of prosecutors.
"This is the day I’ve been dreading for a long time," Larry Jegley, prosecuting attorney for Arkansas’ Pulaski County said tonight when informed that Clemmons was being sought for questioning in connection with the killings.
Clemmons’ criminal history includes at least five felony convictions in Arkansas and at least eight felony charges in Washington. The record also stands out for the number of times he has been released from custody despite questions about the danger he posed.
Clemmons had been in jail in Pierce County for the past several months on a pending charge of second-degree rape of a child. He was released from custody just six days ago, even though was staring at seven additional felony charges in Washington state.
Clemmons posted $15,000 with a Chehalis company called Jail Sucks Bail Bonds. The bondsman, in turn, put up $150,000, securing Clemmons’ release on the pending child-rape charge.
For your consideration. No comment at this time.
Nod to AMERICAblog.
According to the New York Times, the officers who were killed were identified as Tina Griswold, 40; Ronald Owens, 37; Sgt. Mark Renninger, 39; and Greg Richards, 42.
As I wrote last March, 14-year-old Gregory Robinson sounds like someone you would have admired.
Hearing gunshots, Robinson tried to protect a 10-month-old and a 4-year-old, and was shot dead. His murder remains unsolved, along with many others.
The murder of 14-year-old Gregory Robinson, a Simeon Career Academy student who died shielding two younger children from bullets last March, remains unsolved.
This saddens the Rev. Don Smith of Holy Jerusalem Church, who doesn’t live far from where the murder took place, in the 1100 block of West 110th Place.
"I think some of these kids are so engrossed in video games, they don’t know reality," Smith said. "They think shooting is like a video game — [that] they shoot you, and three seconds later you get back up. It don’t work that way."
The murder of the Chicago Public Schools student — and many other homicides in the city that remain unsolved — was the reason Smith and a cadre of ministers and community groups hit the streets Saturday morning, ringing doorbells and passing out pamphlets asking for neighbors’ help in solving them.
Chicago Police spokesman Roderick Drew on Saturday could not immediately provide the number of unsolved murders in the city.
The South Side of Chicago is too dangerous still. There are about 100 community groups working in tandem with the Chicago Police Department to solve these murders. Dubbed Chain of Change, the project "organizes youth activists to individually and collectively strategize how to end violence by exposing its roots through the creation of media. Beyond media distributes video cameras to youth groups, who create short videos that challenge individuals to think about their own roles in this struggle."
Here is one of their video projects:
It’s a start. Another start.
And still the bullets fly.
The tragic news from the Chicago Tribune:
Police have recovered a note left behind by Thomas Mangiantini, who they say killed his two young sons, his wife and himself in their Addison home.
The note, one page long and handwritten, was discovered late Wednesday night, hours after the bodies of Mangiantini, his wife Elizabeth and their sons Tommy Jr., 8, and Angelo, 12, were found, according to Addison Police Chief Tim Hayden.
Hayden would not disclose the contents of the note, but said Mangiantini was distraught.
The police chief also said two guns were recovered from the scene and Mangiantini used both of them to shoot his family. The police have not yet determined to whom the guns were registered, Hayden said.
Thomas E. Mangiantini, 48, killed his wife and children before shooting himself in the mouth, Hayden said. He was found dead in his bedroom.
The DuPage County coroner ruled today that Elizabeth Mangiantini died of a single gunshot wound to the head. Tommy Jr. was also shot once in the head and Angelo suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the head, the coroner said. Their deaths were classified as homicides.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the relatives of this family.