E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Rich Hein/Chicago Sun-Times
Janice Watson signs a memorial for Joseph Briggs, a 16-year-old who was killed Saturday, as Joseph's sister Maggie, 17, right, looks on in the Marquette Park neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois, Sunday.
A series of shootings in Chicago over the weekend left eight people dead, including a 16-year-old, and more than 40 people wounded, according to NBCChicago.com.
During one particularly bloody stretch overnight Saturday, about 20 people were shot, police said.
"None of it is OK," Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy told NBCChicago.com. "And I don't want it to seem like we're managing it, but the realistic expectations have to be over the long-term."
The youngest to die from the weekend gun violence was 16-year-old Joseph Briggs, shot on his front porch in Marquette Park, police said, adding that the shooting may have been gang-related.
The teen’s grandmother, who was raising him and his sisters, told the Chicago Sun-Times she did not believe Briggs was the intended target, just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Courtesy Chicago Sun-Times
Joseph Briggs, 16, was killed Saturday night on his front porch in Marquette Park, Chicago.
She said her grandson’s murder has caused her to think about relocating.
“There’s been a lot of shootings on this block,” Josephine Briggs said to the Sun-Times. “Once I bury him, I’m going to try and move."
McCarthy said guns and gang activity remain a huge issue for the city but he maintains overall crime in Chicago is down 10 percent.
"Crime reduction is a process," McCarthy said. "We implement the strategies and the question is are we doing better than we were last year. And the answer is yes."
After a bad first quarter that saw a 60 percent spike in murders over the previous year, McCarthy said, shootings are down eight percent in the second quarter and gun recovery is up 20 percent.
He pointed out that this time last year 17 people were murdered in a week.
"It's not something we want to declare victory about, but it's progress," McCarthy said. "You have to have that perspective and it's the reality."
The first shootings of the weekend happened around 4:43 p.m. on Friday near the Back of the Yards neighborhood on the southwest side of the city, where two men were killed and three others were wounded.
Rashuan Stephany, 22, and Mario Jackson, 26, were standing outside with three others when two unknown men approached them on foot and fired shots, Chicago police spokesman Daniel O’Brien told the Sun-Times.
Stephany and Jackson were pronounced dead a short while later at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
- US Commerce secretary in car crashes suffered a seizure
- Chicago's bloody weekend: 8 dead, 40-plus wounded
- Sandusky child sex-abuse trial under way
- 3 killed, 3 wounded in shooting near Auburn University
- Report: NYPD fires Orthodox Jew recruit for refusing to trim beard
- Video: Stepfather in hot water for child beating
Leave a Comment:
Where is Barry to help his hommies out? How come Jesse and AL have not been around? You let one idiot (Zimmerman) kill one young black punk (Martin) and all heck breaks lose w/ the DOJ and freakin AG etc. So let the States police themselves as long as it is black on black???,,is that what they are saying? Gun control,,,don't make me friggin laugh. So much time and energy wasted on the wrong things in this country
If people want a change, then they have to make the change. One sure fire thing that needs to change is you can't protect the people who do these crimes. The police show up to do their job and get stonewalled. Stonewalling the police doesn't fix the problem.
I say let them kill each other, once enough have been killed the problem goes away. How many resources do we have to provide of people who don't want to help themselves.
Killing each other doesn't quite accomplish the goal. The problem is that one of these creatures can typically have 30 kids with 20 different bitchez. IOW, they propagate really well, so they just keep making more of the same. Maybe a spay/neuter program would work. You could hand out free TVs or something.
I find it very interesting and typical how this becomes a political debate. Clearly the law makers were NOT the ones firing the weapons and many believe that what ever legislation they inact or do not inact will somehow curb or better yet, stop this violence or vice versa. So as long as the gangs have weapons and have a grudge, there will be this type of violence. (PERIOD) Some how smooth brains roll this up as an Obama or Emanuel, or Bush, or Reagan, or Chicago politicians, etc issue. It must be becuase they have or don;t have firearm laws, etc, etc, etc. This will never stop, same as extreme gihaddists will never stop strapping bombs to themselves and blowing up innocent people. i wish for one day we could randomly pick 8 people from this post and elevate them to being in charge of this problem. Soon, they would figure out it is a syndrome all it's own, not some symptom of legislation inacted by some politician. This is a people problem, a human problem and not one that can be treated by changing laws. What is the cure...pretty sure people much smarter than me would have figured that out by now so clearly, there is not one. It is just a very sad part of life so stop finding someone to blame.
this is impossible the state does not allow us to carry guns,
crime is down in Chicago because Chicago closed down some of It's housing projects and exported the residents to Rockford where crime is on the rise.
Not only Rockford, but into Iowa as well. Here in Cedar Rapids there are shootings quite often. The differince is the folks here can;t hit crap, so there are few killings. CR opened up tons of section 8 housing & Iowa hands out food stamps & welfare to anybody ! I see nice clothes & cadillacs all over. But they are living off our dime ! WTF !
Name one black majority city, territory, country, etc. that can even govern itself! This is not RACIST... it is a fact! The intellectual ability is there! However, the rest of the group tries their best to hold their own folks back! A continent the size and population of Africa, and every po-dunk country in Europe was able to colonize! Before I get cussed out, somebody explain this phenomina! This is not about racial inferiority at all....it is about blacks not wanting blacks by and large to succeed.....again, name a country..........and see why Chicago is what it is.
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP here we go again.......waking up this morning and reading the news I expected to hear a new and bigger body count from "the windy city".........OH JESSIE OH AL Where are you???? are you out there COMMUNITY ORGANIZING????.....Keep up the good job and if it keeps up you'll have no body to organize......You afraid to "call A SPADE A SPADE" and go kick some serious BLACK ASS.....call in the national guard and bust the gangs down to dust.....What in the F*#$ are you waiting for........Stop beating your gums and KICK SOME ASS.....You can't reason with STUPID IGNORANT UNEDUCATED THUGS.......All they understand is ASS KICKING and DEATH.......oh and lets not forget DRUGS......Here's an idea ......introduce drugs to the distribution system with sterilization components in them and in another two generations the numbers of those living off and costing the SYSTEM will start to decline....NO MORE PREGNANCIES....NO MORE CHILD SUPPORT...NO MORE THUG GANGSTERS...LESS POLICE PROTECTION because there won't be gangs.....If you have a better SOLUTION that can reduce the cost of MAINTAINING these characters i'd love to read about it. Lets stop building playgrounds that turn out being SHOOTING GALLERYS....lets stop building new schools where they only go to deal drugs and party.....lets stop building community centers that only give advise on how to live off of the SYSTEM.......For the few that want to REALLY work hard for the rewards in life , there will always be a place for them to ACHIEVE SUCESS........those select people are the ones that deserve a break that they appreciate what they have ...and when they get going it is usually as far away from the LAZY FREELOADERS as the can....GOOD FOR THEM
My response the Mothers comment about moving is to stay right in Chicago. Other urban areas don't want this gang crap getting any worse than it already is. Please, don't move.
I don' know why the police bother to try to stop these people. Let them keep killing each other. Eventually there won't be any of them left. The last one standing can shoot himself and then we will finally be done with it! Yeyyyy!
Good job by all those who have for decades pounded the " victim" mentality and "entitlement" mentality. This is generations of trained behavior bearing fruit. This is ignorance and laziness on families bearing fruit. What do you expect? Summer in Chicago.
How can this be? Chicago has the toughest gun control laws in the nation.
Ugh, and I have to travel to Chicago in two weeks. At least the area I'm going to be in I *think* is low-crime. (Downtown area.) But thanks to the TSA, I can't bring any personal protection, not only that, but local Chicago gun laws would prevent me from having it as well.
Chicago is a beautiful and majestic city. Make sure to stop in to one of the museums and visit Grant Park. Just don't go walking around past 10 or 11. It's summer and the animals will be out, even downtown.
wow! gun control is not working in the windy city this weekend. must be the thing to do on weekends too go shooting of people. the mayor of Chicago doesn't want people to own guns, is this right or wrong? if that is the case i would tell the mayor too stick it up his @@@! law abiding people not allowed to carry weapons is crazy! this is one good reaason not go too chicagofor a visit,i mean its a war zone in this pig infested sewer of a town.
SEMPER FI
DANNY P
RETIRED
Liberals are so quick to say "shame on you" when you bring up the race issue but when was the last time that you picked up the paper and read about all the gun violence in a white neighborhood? Right so go ahead and call me a racist because that way you don't have to actually address the problem and can continue to hide your head in the sand. What's unfortunate is that the "youth" in these neighborhoods never even geta chance. Everyone makes excuses and casts blame on everyone and everything but those who are creating the problem. Really effective don't you think? And answer me this how is that every other culture has "over come" and thrived with little or no assistance yet the "African-American" culture can mess up any and every opportunity given to them and then just blame it on someone else (Look at how well Africa is doing by the way)? A perfect example of "over coming" are the Jews who survived the holocaust. They were systematically killed to near extinction and no just a few generations later have flourished as a culture and a people. This of course doesn't exclude the Germans, The Irish the Italians or any other group of immigrants who came to this country and made abteer life for themselves and there families. Hell even the Mexicans (illegals and all) are for the most part extremely hard working and family oriented. There is good and bad in all but this lot seems to have a lot more bad then good. Thier value system is based on being a self centered, lazy thug. I'm sure my post will create all sorts of out cry and disgust and it will most surely be collapsed by the community but that in of it self scares me. People can't handle the truth so they look everywhere but at the source of the problem which will never, ever solve it. Call me a racist if you will (I'm not but I'm not going to convince you otherwise and I don't care what you think) but I believe that I'm a "realist" and I call it like I see it.
AMEN MY FRIEND call it like you see it .....assuming responsibility for your actions is a big part of being a good citizen
Excuse me Jon.
Racism (REAL racism) is so rare, that the race-agitators are now resorting to new ways of declaring that a person or society is "racist!".
So there's this "subtle" racism. They look for "code".
So when you say words like "responsibility", they now are saying that this is a racist code word meant to provoke the attention and action of other racists!
The USA officially has a racism fetish. We love all things that could possible be construed as racist... we are truly koo koo about race... especially as whites relate to blacks (not so much regarding hispanics or asians).
Yes it know it's spelled "a better" not "abteer"
Time to ask obama to step down and call in NATO bombers to protect innocent civilians
after reading one of the recent posts it came to me that MAYBE .....Black mentality might be that blacks should never accept BLAME....Pass it off on anyone or anything but yourself. The neighborhoods all blame someone besides and for that matter ....Have you heard our PRESIDENT admit to one thing being HIS FAULT......Just one thing...I can't recall even ONE........Is this what he was doing as a community organizer? Advising others to not accept responsibility but to BLAME OTHERS....I'm seeing a pattern...HOW BOUT YOU
It is not a color problem ! it is a culture problem.
Grammatical mistakes courtesy of the Chicago public school system :-)
I don't think I will be going to Chicago anytime soon
@ Tony and Mike, this is not jesse jackson or al sharpton problem, this is EVERYBODY'S PROBLEM, there are a number of community leaders trying to get something done about this but their hands are tied. The police need to do something about the gun trafficking if they want to stop these senseless killings. I myself, am sick and tired of these young black men killing each other like a bunch animals who live out in the wild and don't know no better. Its sicking and disgraceful to the black community who want a better life. And all you other idiots on here trying to blame President Obama, give me a break!!! this has been going on way before he took office, just like the other presidents who also could not do anything about this. name one president that stopped this type of violence in their home state or any other home state, you can't can you? so shut up and get off your racist a@$ and see if you can come up with a solution!!The stuff that comes out of your mouth make you no more better than those with the guns killing people!!
Well Franklin D Roosevelt was president when prohibition was lifted (see 21st amendment). That cut a lot of crime. However, the ratification of prohibition (18th amendment), created the crime syndicates; which are still mirrored by modern crime syndicates. One thing to do would be end the war on drugs. People who want the drugs are getting them anyway, and we are paying billions (to no avail) to keep them away. Ending the war on drugs takes away a major revenue source from the criminals; and puts some coin back into the public coffers. Its a Win, win, win.
The old, standby rationalizations don't work and have been put to bed.
Poverty? That's the reason??? These folks have cell phones, cars, and guns. Man, have we forgotten what poverty is?
These people have been, LITERALLY, handicapped by an entitlement mentality. They are perma-children with truly no skills whatsoever. They are impoverished in terms of their emotional maturity and skills. Yes. I'd agree to that!
These days, we are reduced to thinking that it is "special" to see a black man caring for a child or his woman! THAT is special??? Man. Our social supports have devastated these people.
But no. Zimmerman is the problem. Rogue neighborhood watch guys are the problem. Stand you ground is the problem.
What a mess.
The Gun Lobby's solution would be to arm every citizen of Chicago with a weapon and the more powerful the better. Now wouldn't that make for a spectacular shootout!
There are times when being out on the reservation is down right good. Where I can see a visitor coming about two hours off. Please leave me on my rez and never visit me, thanks.
Hey NRA and members!!! What's wrong with this headline? How many innocents need to be killed before you people get it through your thick skulls that what you try to advocate is wrong?
Hey frezfram, in one of the most gun controlled cities in the nation when are you going to get it through your think skulls and blind eyes how well gun control works to stop criminals from killing people? What's wrong with this headline? You and people like you have left law abiding citizens defenseless to be slaughtered like sheep by gang bangers and thugs. The police, even a force as big as Chicago's cannot protect you.
I should ask you frezfram, how many innocents have to die before YOU get that through your thick skull?
I don't belong to the NRA. I'm an American and own guns. That's my right. You have the right to move to a country where guns are illegal.
You are an IDIOT !!! Chicago has one of the strictest gun laws in the country, yet one of the worst crime ridden cities out there. Gun laws don;t do squat, criminals don;t follow the rules anyway. Wake up retard !
Most of these poor residents cant even fill out a job app, to do so would be acting white. They barely can talk, to do so would be acting white. Going to school is no good because that is acting white. Wearing pants that actually fit them would be acting white. The only alternative to acting white, is to revert to the law of the jungle.