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CHICAGO (SUN TIMES MEDIA WIRE) - At least two people were killed and 27 others were wounded in citywide shootings over the extended New Year’s weekend, which began at 5 p.m. Friday and ended 5 a.m. Tuesday.
No gun murders were reported in the first 24 hours of 2019. The last murder of 2018 happened the afternoon of New Year’s Eve in the Princeton Park neighborhood on the Far South Side. Xavier Gatson, 25, was walking at 2:43 p.m. in the 200 block of West 95th Street when someone got out of a vehicle and started shooting at him, according to Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. The shooter then took off in the vehicle.
That morning, another man was killed by gunfire, this time in the Washington Park neighborhood on the South Side. Cornelius C. Hart, 37, was shot in the chest at 9:57 a.m. in the 300 block of East 53rd Street, authorities said. A witness told police she heard shots and saw the man collapse in a doorway before seeing another man between 25 and 27 years old running away on foot. Hart died later from a gunshot wound to the chest.
The last shooting of the holiday weekend happened when a man was wounded by someone trying to rob him at gunpoint New Year’s Day in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side.
At 9:16 p.m., the 35-year-old was standing on a sidewalk in the 7100 block of South Sangamon when a male walked up to him and said he was going to rob him, police said. They began struggling and the male fired a bullet into the 35-year-old’s abdomen.
In 2019’s first reported shooting, a 12-year-old boy was shot inside a home in the South Side Englewood neighborhood. At 12:12 a.m., he was looking out a second floor window in the 6500 block of South Union Avenue when a bullet whizzed in and struck him in the left hand, police said.
The year’s final documented shooting left two women shot Monday night in the Austin neighborhood by someone armed with an assault weapon. At 11:49 p.m., the women, both 25 years old, were in a Ford sedan traveling west in the 5400 block of West Gladys Avenue when they were wounded by gunfire, police said. A male fired at the vehicle, striking one in the chest and grazing the other’s head.
A man and woman were badly hurt in a restaurant drive-thru shooting Monday morning in the South Side Englewood neighborhood. At 3:15 a.m., the 60-year-old man and 27-year-old woman were in a black Saturn about to receive their meals at a fast food drive-thru in the 200 block of West Garfield Boulevard, police said. Two males got out of a white sedan fired multiple shots into the Saturn, critically wounding the man and seriously wounding the woman.
On Saturday night, a 50-year-old driver crashed into a tree and had to be removed from his burning vehicle after being struck by gunfire in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side.
At 8:51 p.m., the man was driving in the 5500 block of West LeMoyne when an unknown shooter fired a bullet into his head, police said. The car rammed into a tree and went up in flames. Firefighters extinguished the flames and the 50-year-old was taken to Loyola Medical Center in Maywood. He was in critical condition.
A 26-year-old man was wounded early Saturday in the shooting in the South Side Chatham neighborhood.
About 1:45 a.m., he was sitting inside a vehicle waiting for a date at a gas station in the 8700 block of South State Street when someone approached him and fired shots, police said.
The man was shot in both legs and was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where his condition stabilized, police said. No one was in custody.
Blood, shattered glass and shell casings were found at a BP gas station, which had been taped off by officers shortly after the shooting. The station’s glass door was shattered, as well as the windows of a Cadillac parked at a pump.
The extended New Year’s weekend lasted from 5 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Tuesday. At least three people were wounded in citywide gun violence on Friday, seven were wounded Saturday and five on Sunday. Two people were murdered and nine others wounded in New Year’s Eve shootings. On New Year’s Day, five people were shot, none fatally.
Last year’s gun violence toll on New Year’s weekend, which was one day shorter, was two dead and at least 24 others hurt in Chicago.
Over the extended Christmas holiday weekend last week, three people were killed and 27 others wounded in Chicago gun violence.