3 killed, 32 wounded in weekend shootings across Chicago
Chicago Police investigate near West 13th Street and South Central Park Avenue, where a 32-year-old man was shot to death early Sunday, April 17, 2016. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
CHICAGO (Sun-Times Media Wire) - Three men were killed and at least 32 other people — including a baby girl — have been wounded in shootings across the city since Friday afternoon.
The most recent homicide happened early Sunday in North Lawndale on the Southwest Side.
Officers responding to a call of person shot about 1:25 a.m. found 32-year-old Fredrick Blount lying in the street near the corner of West 13th Street and South Central Park Avenue, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
He had suffered a gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.
Family members said Blount had a 1-year-old daughter, a 12-year-old son and three sisters.
“He was a good person, worked every day, wasn’t up to nothing,” said Blount’s father, 54-year-old Fredrick Lee Irons.
“Sundays he loved to cook. Tomorrow he would’ve been calling me to come over and barbecue with him.”
Late Friday, two men were shot to death at an Englewood neighborhood party on the South Side.
A male who wasn’t allowed into the party held inside a garage in the 7400 block of South Eggleston returned with a gun about 11:20 p.m. and started shooting, police said.
Pierre Payne, 32, was shot in the chest and pronounced dead at the scene at 11:38 p.m., authorities said. He lived in the 1900 block of East 71st Street.
Andrew H. Haynes, 34, was shot several times in the torso and taken to Stroger Hospital, where he died at 2:11 a.m. He lived in the first block of West 13th Street.
A 45-year-old man shot in the left hip also was taken to Stroger, where his condition was stabilized, police said.
In the weekend’s first shooting, a 1-year-old girl was shot in the neck while riding in a car with family members in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side.
She was in the back seat of a car with her aunt and cousin going west in the 5400 block of West Le Moyne about 4:45 p.m. Friday when someone in a silver vehicle fired shots at the car, police said. A bullet went through the trunk and back seat, hitting the girl in the neck.
The driver took her to West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, and she later was transferred to Stroger Hospital, where her condition was stabilized, police said.
The latest nonfatal shooting left two people critically wounded late Sunday in the Roseland neighborhood on the Far South Side.
A 34-year-old man and a 41-year-old woman were outside about 10:30 p.m. in the 500 block of East 103rd when a gunman walked over and fired shots, according to police. The woman was shot in the abdomen and the man was shot in the neck. Both were taken in critical condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
About 15 minutes earlier, a man was critically wounded in a South Side Park Manor neighborhood shooting. The 20-year-old was arguing with another person about 10:15 p.m. in the 7200 block of South Prairie when that person pulled out a gun and shot him in the abdomen, police said. He was taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition.
About 8 p.m., a 23-year-old man was wounded in what investigators believe was a gang-related shooting in the Chatham neighborhood on the South Side. He was on a sidewalk in the 800 block of East 82nd Street when someone in a light-colored SUV opened fire, police said. He was shot in the left leg and taken in fair condition to Stroger Hospital.
Two men were shot about an hour earlier in the Lawndale neighborhood on the Southwest Side. They were on a front porch just after 7 p.m. in the 1900 block of South Troy when someone with a gun walked up and started shooting, police said. A 31-year-old was shot in the left thigh and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition. A 36-year-old man was taken to the same hospital in serious condition with a gunshot wound to his right leg. A police source said both men were documented gang members.
At least 24 other people have been wounded in shootings across the city since 5:15 p.m. Friday.