Monday, March 31, 2014

Chicago: 14 Shot, One Killed Friday and Saturday; Chicago Tribune Continues Refining Its House Style of Incoherent, Uninformative Crime Reporting

Re-posted by Nicholas Stix
Thanks to reader-researcher RC

Nobody saw nothing, and the alleged crime reporters fill in none of the blanks, and give no context. Aren’t Marxists always stressing the importance of “context”? (Oh, but that’s just a rhetorical ploy of theirs.) For instance, they could at least say on which gang’s turf a shooting occurred.

Why would someone shoot a female FedEx driver in her truck? It’s all presented as “senseless gun violence.” It sounds like it’s “just the facts,” but most of the facts that would permit readers to understand what happened are left out.
 

Man fatally shot on South Side, 13 wounded in other shootings

By Carlos Sadovi, Deanese Williams-Harris, and Rosemary Regina Sobol
8:58 p.m. CDT, March 29, 2014

A man was fatally shot in the city's South Side in the Bronzeville neighborhood, and at least 13 others were wounded during shootings citywide over 36 hours Friday and Saturday.

Most recently, about 7:30 a.m. in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, a 19-year-old man was shot in the upper thigh in the 3500 block of West Hirsch Street, according to police. Chicago Police News affairs Officer Jose Estrada said the man was taken to John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County in an unknown condition.

In addition to the gunshot victim, another 19-year-old man was the victim of a battery when he was pistol whipped by the same person who shot the other man, police said. The battery victim was listed in good condition, police said.

[The last sentence just said that the battery (pistol-whipping) victim was in good condition. The next sentence will tell you that his condition is “serious to critical.” Apparently, the Tribune does not have copy editors in its employ. It sounds like an entire passage about a crime got lost, and that the next passage is about that crime.]

Chicago Fire Department Chief Joe Roccasalva listed that man's condition as serious to critical and also said a second victim was taken in fair-to-serious condition to Saints Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center.

It was not clear if the second victim was shot or wounded in another way.

Earlier, in the city's Belmont Gardens neighborhood on the Northwest Side, a 16-year-old boy was shot in the calf about 4:50 a.m. in a gang-related attack, said News Affairs Officer Janel Sedevic.

The boy was a passenger inside a vehicle in the 4000 block of West Fullerton Avenue when another vehicle pulled up and someone inside it shouted gang slogans at the boy's car before firing shots at it, said Sedevic. The boy was driven to Our Lady of The Resurrection Medical Center where he was listed in good condition. No one is in custody, according to Sedevic.

In the city's Englewood neighborhood about 4 a.m., someone shot a 17-year-old boy in the leg in the 6800 block of South Throop Street, said News Affairs Officer Ronald Gaines. The teen was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where his condition had stabilized.

In another attack in the Englewood neighborhood, someone shot two men in the 500 block of West Tremont Street about 2 a.m., according to Gaines.

One victim, 21, was shot in the head and seriously wounded while the other, 39, suffered a gunshot wound to the buttocks, Gaines said. Both were taken to Stroger hospital. The older man's condition had stabilized.

The crime scene was outside a large 2-story frame house in an area near Hope Park without many buildings. Most have been torn down, police on the scene said. District officers cordoned off a wrought iron fence leading into the house with yellow tape. A front door to the home remained open and colored lights lit up two upstairs rooms.

Several shell casings were recovered by evidence technicians in the street in front of the home.

No one was in custody, Gaines said.

In a separate attack in the South Side's Stony Island Park neighborhood, a 19-year-old man was shot in the hand at 85th Street and S. East End Avenue, according to Gaines. Police learned of the shooting, which happened about 12:45 a.m., when the victim went to Roseland Community Hospital for treatment. He was in good condition, said Gaines.

In other shootings Friday, one man was killed and seven others wounded.

About 1:30 p.m., a 20-year-old man was shot in the head on the 300 block of East 51st Street, in the city's Bronzeville neighborhood, police said.

He was identified as Marc Campbell of the 9200 block of South Stony Island Boulevard and was pronounced dead at the scene at 1:41 p.m., according to a spokesman for the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Police responded to a call of a person shot and found paramedics already on the scene. Officers interviewed a witness who told them he was standing behind the assailant and saw the attacker shoot the 20-year-old using a handgun with an extended clip, according to a police report.

The witness ran for cover and wasn't able to see the gunman's face. Other assisting officers reported that the gunman's vehicle, a silver minivan with Florida license plates, fled north and then west, the report said. The minivan was later found, in flames, about 6:30 p.m. in the 3700 block of South Ellis Avenue, poilce said.

Several shell casings were recovered and a POD camera was active [?] at the time of the killing.

Earlier Friday afternoon, two men were wounded in a shooting at 12:05 p.m. on the 1500 block of West Morse Avenue in the Rogers Park neighborhood, News Affairs Officer Jose Estrada said. A 41-year-old man was shot in the right leg and a 25-year-old man was shot in the buttocks, police said. Both were taken to St. Francis Hospital.

In addition to that shooting, a 25-year-old man was shot in the thigh at 12:39 p.m. on the 5100 block of South Emerald Avenue in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on the South Side at 12:39 p.m., according to police. He was taken to Stroger hospital.

At 6:37 p.m., a man and a 48-year-old FedEx driver were shot on 41st and Cottage Grove in Bronzeville, officials said.

The man, 19, was shot in the left arm and was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in good condition. The woman FedEx driver suffered several gunshot wounds to her right leg and was taken in critical condition to Northwestern, officials said.

According to a police report of the incident, the 19-year-old told police he saw a white Chevrolet Monte Carlo with tinted windows traveling northbound on Cottage Grove and then make a left onto 42nd Street. A gunman exited the car and fired shots at him, hitting the 19-year-old in his left elbow and giving him a graze wound across his upper back, the report said.

The victim said he didn't get a good look at the shooter because he was running east to try to get away. The assailant or assailants continued west.

The woman driving the truck was also going north on Cottage Grove when she was hit in the right knee, the report said. She was not able to talk to responding officers because she'd lost consciousness, the report said.

FedEx spokesman Scott Fiedler confirmed that the woman was an employee.

"Our thoughts are with our employee and her family during this difficult time and we wish her a speedy recovery. FedEx would like to thank the first responders and hospital for their work to assist our employee," Fiedler said in a statement Saturday.

A woman who lives on the 3rd floor apartment across the street from where the FedEx truck was still parked late Friday with its front and rear hazards going said she was at home all night with her 17-month-old son and had ordered a pizza.

When the delivery man left about 7:10 p.m., she closed the blinds and noticed the flashing lights of the first responders.

"I closed the blinds and saw them pull the woman out and put her on a stretcher," said the resident, who declined to be identified.

At first she said she saw two police officers and then multiple other personnel go to the scene, including paramedics from the Chicago Fire Department. She saw officers looking around the outside of the truck, which did not have any broken windows or appear to be damaged except for a blown front driver's side tire.

There was a pool of what appeared to be blood outside of the front passenger side of the truck near the tire and red stains could be seen on the lower part of the truck, near the door. Bright orange rubber gloves were discarded nearby.

The resident said she didn't hear anything that sounded like a shooting.

Earlier Friday,  an 18-year-old man was shot in the lower abdomen about 1:46 a.m. in the 9400 block of South Commercial in the Calumet Heights neighborhood on the Far South Side, said News Affairs Officer Thomas Sweeney. The man was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in good condition.

In addition to those shootings, a suspect in a home invasion was wounded by an off-duty police officer in the Longwood Manor neighborhood at about noon today.

Chicagobreaking@tribune.com | Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking
 

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5 comments:

Glaivester said...

I think you created an italics tag that you didn't close in this post, and it is affecting the rest of the page.

Anonymous said...

It's a free fire zone. It's actually guerrilla warfare. No civilized society can exist under such conditions.

Anonymous said...

Persons outside Chicago understand that these savage and barbaric acts are perpetrated ONLY in certain specific areas of the city, namely those areas occupied predominantly by negroes, Mexican, and Puerto Ricans.

White working class neighborhoods frankly are as safe as any place on earth.

Anonymous said...

And the reasons for this mayhem are:

A look, a glance, a stare.

A perceived look, a perceived glance, a perceived stare.

A quarter, a cigarette, a parking space.

Over and over, world without end, Amen.

Anonymous said...

Chicago Tribune used to be a powerhouse of conservatism under Colonel Mc Cormick.

NOT for a long time now.