17 dead, 41 wounded in Chicago weekend shootings

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Chicago Police investigate a fatal shooting in the 3400 block of West Hirsch early Sunday. | Network Video Productions

SUN-TIMES MEDIA WIRE - At least 17 people, including four teenagers, were killed and 41 others were wounded in shootings across Chicago between Friday evening and Monday morning, making it the city’s deadliest weekend of the year.

The weekend’s latest homicide happened shortly after 4 a.m. Monday in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side. Mark Higgins, 28, was found with gunshot wounds to the chest and head on the kitchen floor of a second-floor apartment in the 1100 block of West Garfield, according to Chicago Police. Higgins, who lived on the same block, was pronounced dead at the scene at 4:09 a.m., authorities said.

About 3:15 a.m. Sunday, twin 17-year-old brothers were killed in a drive-by shooting in the Old Town neighborhood on the Near North Side. Edwin and Edward Bryant were standing outside in the 1300 block of North Hudson when a dark vehicle drove by and someone inside opened fire, authorities said. Edwin was shot in the chest and back, while Edward suffered gunshot wounds to the chest and head. They were both taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where Edwin was pronounced dead at 3:45 a.m., and Edward died about an hour later. They both lived in the 700 block of South Kedzie.

About 15 minutes earlier, 19-year-old Raqkown Ricks was killed and a 40-year-old man was wounded in a Near West Side shooting. The men were in a car at 2:59 a.m. in the 2100 block of West Jackson when someone walked up and fired shots in their direction, authorities said. The driver tried to speed away, but their vehicle struck a parked vehicle before coming to a rest. Ricks, of the 1200 block of South Sawyer, suffered several gunshot wounds to the back and was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:38 a.m. The older man was shot in the shoulder and also taken to Stroger, where his condition was stabilized.

At 2:34 a.m., Clara Gonzalez, 34, showed up in the 10700 block of South Hoxie in the South Deering neighborhood on the Far South Side and told witnesses she was shot, authorities said. Gonzalez  had suffered a gunshot wound and someone took her to Trinity Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 3:06 a.m., authorities said.

About 1 a.m., officers responded to a call of shots fired in the 7900 block of South Vernon in the South Side Chatham neighborhood and found a man lying on the sidewalk, police said. Lindsey Anderson, 38, was shot in the head and chest and pronounced dead at the scene at 1:19 a.m., authorities said. His home address was not known Monday afternoon.

Fifteen minutes earlier in the Humboldt Park neighborhood on the West Side, officers responding to a call of shots fired found 31-year-old Gilbert Leroy Wainwright III lying on the sidewalk in the 3400 block of West Hirsch, authorities said. He suffered a gunshot wound to the face and was taken to Norwegian American Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He lived in the 3900 block of Williams Street in Downers Grove.

At 8:05 p.m. Saturday, 19-year-old Luis Corona was shot to death in the Archer Heights neighborhood on the Southwest Side. He was in a parked vehicle in the 4800 block of South Karlov when two males announced a robbery, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Corona tried to escape but was shot in the chest and crashed his vehicle into two parked vehicles at the end of an alley. Corona, who lived in the 6100 block of South Moody, was pronounced dead at the scene at 8:25 p.m.

Less than an hour earlier, 28-year-old Robert McClinton was sitting in a parked vehicle in an alley in the 8300 block of South Hermitage in the South Side Gresham neighborhood when someone walked up and shot him in the head, authorities said. McClinton, of the 8100 block of South Loomis, was pronounced dead at the scene at 7:45 p.m., according to the medical examiner’s office.

About 20 minutes earlier, a 36-year-old man was shot in the Englewood neighborhood and died later Sunday morning. Walter McCurry was standing in the street at 7:23 p.m. Saturday in the 1100 block of West 57th Street, when someone in a dark-colored car fired shots, hitting him in the chest, arm and hip, authorities said. McCurry, who lived in the 6300 block of South Morgan, was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:47 a.m. Sunday.

At 4:50 p.m. Saturday, 16-year-old Deandre Banks was fatally shot in the West Garfield Park neighborhood, authorities said. He was discovered outside in the 200 block of South Kostner with gunshot wounds to his back and leg. Deandre was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 5:14 p.m., authorities said. He lived in the 5400 block of West Ohio.

At 1:23 a.m. Saturday, a 14-year-old boy was gunned down in the West Side Austin neighborhood. DeMarco Webster Jr. was on the street in the 500 block of South Central when someone in a dark-colored car shot him in the torso, authorities said. Webster, who lived in the 700 block of South Kedzie, was taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where he died at 3:15 a.m.

At 12:04 a.m. in the South Side Auburn Gresham neighborhood, someone walked up to 25-year-old Martell Turner as he sat in a vehicle in the 1200 block of West 79th Street and shot him in the chest and abdomen, authorities said. Turner was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead at 1:31 a.m. He lived in the 7900 block of South Throop.

Five minutes before that in the South Shore neighborhood, officers responding to a call of a person shot found 30-year-old Tyrice Anderson lying in the street in the 7800 block of South South Shore Drive, authorities said. Anderson was shot in the head and taken to Christ Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 1:03 a.m. He lived on the same block as the shooting.

About 10:20 p.m. Friday, two people were gunned down at a Back of the Yards neighborhood gas station on the South side. Chiquita Ford and Brian Fields, both 30 years old, were sitting in a vehicle at the station in the 1900 block of West Garfield when a gunman walked up and fired at them, hitting the woman in the side and the man in the chest, authorities said. They were both pronounced dead at the scene at 11:02 p.m. Ford lived in suburban Westchester and Fields was from the 7200 block of South Wolcott.

The weekend’s first homicide happened about 9 p.m. Friday in the West Side Austin neighborhood. Hernando Caster, 38, was on a sidewalk in the 4900 block of West Huron when two gunmen walked up and shot him in the back and thighs, authorities said. Caster, of the 5300 block of West Washington, was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he died at 10:58 p.m.

The latest nonfatal shooting happened shortly after 2 a.m. Monday in the South Chicago neighborhood. A 37-year-old woman was a passenger in a vehicle driving south in the 8000 block of South Exchange when she heard gunfire and realized she’d been shot in the left shoulder, police said. She later showed up at South Shore Hospital, where her condition was stabilized.

At least 39 more people were wounded in other shootings across the city between 4:45 p.m. Friday and 9:15 p.m. Sunday.

Seventeen fatal shootings makes the weekend the city’s deadliest of 2016, according to Sun-Times data. Over both Father’s Day and Labor Day weekends in Chicago this year, 13 people were wounded in shootings.

On Monday, Aug. 9, nine people were killed in city shootings and 13 others were wounded.