A half-dozen people were gunned down in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend as the summer got off to its unofficial start, adding to the 134 people who were killed as of May 26 in the city that became a focal point earlier this year as the nation debated ways to address gun violence.

Experts and activists say those numbers highlight a downward trend in the city’s gun fatalities this year, but also underscore the challenges officers face headed into what are usually some of the most violent months in urban centers across the country. More than two hundred people had been killed in the city by the same time a year ago.

Despite the lower number of homicides year over year, Chicago and gun violence have basically been synonymous over the last six months. The city saw a number of high-profile gun fatalities as the nation debated the prospect of new state and federal gun legislation in the wake of the school shooting deaths of 20 young children and six adults in Newtown, Conn.

In January, Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old Chicagoan who performed at President Obama’s inauguration, was killed by a gunman who ran down an alley and fled in a white car, according to police.

In another incident, 6-month-old baby Jonylah Watkins died in March after being shot five times while she was sitting in her family’s parked minivan in the city’s Woodlawn neighborhood. Koman Willis, 33, turned himself in on May 25 in connection with the shooting. He has been charged with first-degree murder and is being held without bond.

In addition to the six people killed over the Memorial Day holiday, at least 17 more were injured, NBC Chicago reported. The weekend’s victims included an 18-year-old man who was killed in an alley and a 17-year-old man who died after having two bullets fired into his head.

Despite the headline-grabbing senselessness of the crimes, shootings in the city are actually down 28 percent compared to 2012 and 18 percent compared to 2011, said Chicago Police Department spokesman Adam Collins.

But the summer will bring new challenges as people gather outdoors in parks and other public spaces, said Roseanna Ander, executive director of the University of Chicago’s Crime Lab.

“Gun violence or violent crime increases during the summer months, and some of the reasons include that you just have more people with unstructured time,” Ander said. “When you have more people like you do in the summer months outdoors in public places, you just have a lot more potential for violent crime to happen.”

“The city could actually reach the lowest number of homicides since the 1960s, but the biggest tests will be June, July, and August,” said Tio Hardiman, director of community anti-violence group CeaseFire Illinois.

On Patrol
Mayor Rahm Emanuel vowed to crack down on trouble areas in the aftermath of 2012’s Memorial Day violence, when eleven people were killed and more than 40 were hurt over a four-day period.

“Whether you are a problem business, a violent street corner, or a known drug market, we will go after you,” Emanuel said at the time, according to the Associated Press.

Police have taken a renewed approach to suppressing gun violence since then, placing more cops on patrol in impact zones, Chicago Police Superintendent Gary McCarthy said in an interview with NBC Chicago at the beginning of May. The city saw a 42 percent drop in homicides between January and the end of April this year, officials said.

“We’re going to have good days, we’re going to have bad days, but what’s the overall trend line?” McCarthy said. “In the first four months of this year, we’re in a position that we haven’t been in since the mid-Sixties, as far as the murder rate goes.”

“We are seeing real progress with a significant drop in murders, shootings and overall crime throughout Chicago,” Collins said in an email. “This is progress, not a victory, and it’s a result of our comprehensive policing strategy that includes our gang violence reduction initiative, targeted narcotics initiatives, a return to community policing and a close partnership between CPD and the community.”

Hardiman said that his group, which works with at-risk 16-to-25 year olds to keep them out of conflicts, plans to increase its presence on the streets over the summer months. There are encouraging signs, he said, that the city may see a continued decline in gun deaths even as the weather heats up.

“We usually have a spike during the months of March and April, and we didn’t have those spikes this year,” Hardiman said. “We’re going to have some good days and some bad days.”

But a comparison of crime statistics year-over-year can be misleading, Ander said. A decline in crime rates can rarely be traced back to a single cause, she said, and other factors like a relatively chilly spring may also have contributed to the city’s decrease in gun violence so far this year.

So a decline in gun-related violence this summer would be a positive sign, Ander said, that preventive efforts are taking hold.

“I think it’s too soon to tell or say anything definitive about what’s happening,” Ander said. “It’s certainly encouraging that we’re seeing numbers decrease, and I think a lot of the strategies that the police department are employing do seem like the right things to do.”

Scott Olson / Getty Images

A Chicago Police investigator tries to see the caliber of a shell casing left in the street at the scene of a shooting in the South Shore neighborhood on May 14, 2013, in Chicago.

Related:

• Murders fall 42 percent in America's deadliest city: Chicago
• 'Walking angel': Girl who performed at Obama's inauguration shot dead in Chicago
• 'Totally lost': Chicago woman loses fourth child to gun violence

A suburban Chicago high school senior was struck and killed by lightning during Thursday's storm, officials said.

Jennie Dizon, 17, of Downers Grove, was found unconscious and not breathing in O'Brien Park, at 68th Street and Dunham Road, shortly after 5 p.m., officials said. She was pronounced dead at the scene and the DuPage County Coroner's report said the death is "consistent with a lightning strike."

Her death was just days before her graduation at Benet Academy, scheduled for Sunday.

"It was God's will," her father, Eric Dizon, said Friday.

The senior was on the color guard and was planning a trip to Europe. Her post-graduation plans were to study theater at the University of Cincinnati.

The family said Dizon had dropped off her younger brother and sister, who also attend Benet Academy, at a dentist's office. The teen journaled often, and the family said they believe Dizon went to the park to write.

Younger sister Emmeline Dizon said she kept calling her sister's cell phone for a pickup from the dentist's office but didn't get an answer. Walking home, she said she saw the ambulances at the park but didn't know anything was wrong with her sister until police came to the door.

Police said it was a witness who saw lightning and saw Dizon on the ground. The witness went to help but Dizon was unresponsive, an officer said.

“Benet Academy is mourning the loss of senior Jennie Dizon, who passed into eternal life last evening, apparently having been struck by lightning during a thunderstorm," school officials said in a statement posted online. "Throughout the day today, Benet's chaplain, campus minister, counselors, administrators, and teachers have been available in the chapel, in their offices, in classrooms, and throughout the school building to offer assistance, comfort, and consolation to our students and members of the school community. Please join the entire Benet Family in remembering Jennie and the Dizon family in prayer.”

A Mokena man died last weekend after being struck by lightning while fishing with friends in central Illinois.

Lighting kills as many as 70 people in the United States each year and injures more than 500, according to estimates from the National Weather Service.

Hannah Rappleye / NBC News

Abigail Nava, 17, stands in her Class A uniform during morning formation at Chicago's Phoenix Military Academy.

CHICAGO -- On days when she can’t get a ride, Rocio Herrera catches the 6:10 a.m. bus from her poor, largely Hispanic neighborhood on Chicago’s Southwest side for the long trip to Phoenix Military Academy – one of the city’s six public military-themed high schools.

The military schools are part of the Department of Defense’s Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program, or JROTC. At most schools, JROTC is an elective that requires a few classes on military history and leadership, after-school activities and wearing a uniform a few times a week. In Chicago Public Schools’ military academies, uniforms and salutes are part of everyday life.

One morning in early April, Herrera and her fellow cadets walked through a metal detector and filed into the gym for formation at 7:35 a.m. As they lined up by company, students adjusted their crisp green jackets.  Herrera wore the blue pressed jacket of a battalion commander, her ribbons straight and patent leather shoes spit-polished.

Herrera can hold her own on the street. When she feels disrespected, her round face goes hard. In school, the 17-year-old found a way to channel that toughness. Leadership responsibilities have kept her busy this spring, along with thinking about what she’ll wear to prom.

As for life after graduation in June, Herrera is not sure.

She said she has always dreamed of joining the military, something she is well-prepared for thanks to JROTC. But that road is closed to her because of what she often calls her “situation”: She is an undocumented immigrant.

Top of their class
Herrera’s “situation” is hardly unique.

Chicago Public Schools runs the largest JROTC program in the nation, with 11,000 students enrolled. Officials there estimate that 10 percent are undocumented immigrants, most of whom entered the country as young children. Nationally, experts believe thousands more are in the program, though legal restrictions on asking about immigration status in public schools make hard numbers impossible to come by.

Military service as a path to citizenship for young undocumented immigrants is a part of the wide ranging bipartisan immigration reform bill introduced in the U.S. Senate in April. The bill would allow young undocumented immigrants like Herrera who arrived as children to apply for a provisional immigration status, and then enter the military. Those who graduate high school and serve four years would then be eligible to apply for citizenship.

The Pentagon, which faces a shortage of able, accomplished recruits, has supported previous efforts to allow undocumented immigrants to enlist.

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee in 2006, then-Under Secretary of Defense David Chu said, “Many of these young people may wish to join the military, and have the attributes needed – education, aptitude, fitness and moral qualifications.”

But opponents like Roy Beck, founder and CEO of Numbers USA, which advocates for reduced immigration, argue that creating a military path to citizenship is “a step toward a mercenary army.”

“Taking this to its extreme, do you basically tell everyone in the world, ‘If you come over here and break into the county, and you're young enough, you buy U.S. citizenship by fighting for us?’” he said.

‘Unstrategic’
Todd Connor is a familiar figure at Phoenix. He walks through the halls greeting students with a strident, “Good morning, cadet!” They look up at the slim man in the well-cut suit and reply, “Good morning, sir!”

Hannah Rappleye / NBC News

Rocio Herrera, 17, stands outside Phoenix Military Academy.

Connor became executive director of military programs at Chicago Public Schools about a year ago. He had served as a Navy officer during Operation Iraqi Freedom, then became a successful business consultant. Until recently, he didn’t know much about running high schools.

The student body at Phoenix is about 72 percent Hispanic and 26 percent black. More than 90 percent of its 409 students qualify for the federal lunch program, a widely used measure of student poverty. Connor saw those numbers and knew they meant: kids statistically more likely to test poorly and drop out, kids who would have a harder time getting to college. But he didn’t think about his cadets’ legal status.

That changed in 2011, when Connor was chatting with a group of students about the future. One was senior Alejandro Morales, then Chicago’s highest-ranking cadet. Knowing Morales dreamed of becoming the Marines’ first Hispanic commandant, Connor asked about his plans after graduation. Morales seemed evasive. Connor persisted. Finally, an instructor pulled him aside and said, “Sir, he’s undocumented. He says he wants to go into the military but he can’t.”

This is, to Connor, “unstrategic.” Morales and others like him were brought to the United States as children and the country has invested public dollars in their educations – yet the system prevents them from serving in the military.

“It’s both broken and it’s wrong,” Connor said. “At the point when they’re ready to return the investment, we shut the door on them.”

Morales couldn’t enlist and was unable to attend college. “In eighth grade I thought that by now things would be different,” Morales said. “By the time I graduated, I’d be able to enlist.”

He has some hope. A few months ago, the 19-year-old applied for deferred action, the Obama administration policy adopted last year that gives two years of protection from deportation, along with a temporary work permit, to undocumented students in good standing. Morales is now learning to drive a semi.

‘Closed Doors’
Each September, Darci Keyser, one of Phoenix’s two guidance counselors, starts to hear the stories again.

“The senior year is the most heartbreaking to us as counselors,” she said, reading future heartache on the sheet of junior class rankings fanned on the table in front of her. The names of the undocumented cadets are highlighted in red, clustered at the top. “They’re always our top kids,” Keyser said. “They all get acceptances. They all get scholarship money. But they don’t get enough.”

Francisco Peralta, 17, ranks first in his class. When he walks past his locker, he gazes up at his certificate of achievement as a 2013-2014 Illinois State Scholar and another marking his perfect attendance all four years. He is no longer the kid who was bullied so badly in sixth grade that his family had to move, or the one who gave up on his grades in middle school. Now, he makes firm eye contact from behind his glasses and matter-of-factly lists his accomplishments.

Peralta arrived in this country when he was 3. He doesn’t remember Mexico, but for years he has known that his place of birth could prevent him from enlisting in the military, and becoming a scientist. Without a Social Security number, he can’t apply for federal financial aid, and does not qualify for many private scholarships. To go to college, the oldest of five kids needs a full ride scholarship to cover not only tuition, but fees, room, board and books.

During his junior year, that reality began to creep into his spoken-word poems. He called one “Closed Door”:

The door is slammed in my face

so opportunities like those around me I cannot take

they slip through my hands like sand

so I am never able to grab

or take full advantage of this land.

During senior year, he stayed positive as he mailed off his applications.

Keyser thought he had a chance. “He’s done everything an undocumented kid can,” she said. “If it’s not happening for him, I don’t know who it will happen to.”

Peralta’s acceptance letters started arriving early in his senior year. Each offered enthusiastic congratulations, but awards that would only partially cover the bills. The envelope from De Paul University, Peralta’s first choice, came in December. He had earned a scholarship of up to $28,000 over four years. Tuition for his freshman year alone was $33,390.

When his hopes of winning a prestigious scholarship were dashed, he and his 13-year-old sister Jacqueline cried together. 

“I worry because what if they don't give him papers,” Jacqueline, who was born in the U.S. and is a citizen, said of her brother. “And all of those years of hard study would be for nothing, and then maybe he's going to end up like one of my parents that have to work … at a really bad job for little pay.”

Asked about Francisco’s options after graduating, Jacqueline could think of only two. “He could work construction with my uncle and my dad,” she said. “Or he could go to a store, like a fast food store, and try to work there.”

Hoping for open doors
The immigration reform legislation being debated in Washington could change things for juniors like Abigail Nava. Her journey to the United States from Mexico when she was 9 remains vivid: a walk of two days and two nights through the Arizona desert. When she started school in Chicago, teachers excoriated her for not picking English up faster. Kids called her “wetback.” In the eighth grade, when she learned Phoenix had accepted her, she cried. 

The first time she buttoned the jacket of her uniform, “I knew that it was for me,” she said. She’s now commander of the school’s 80-student Charlie Company.

Earlier this year she began to look into West Point and the Naval Academy, scrolling down the schools’ web pages, checking off her qualifications. When she hit the citizenship requirement, Nava began to understand what Francisco Peralta’s poem meant.

In the Phoenix gym on that April morning, Nava stepped in front of each member of her company by turn, eyes sharp under her carefully shaped brows, inspecting the uniforms of the cadets to make sure everything was in place.

She does the same with her life. One day, if her “situation” changes, she plans to be ready. 

“I don’t really need documents to make me stronger,” she said. Having them “would just open doors.”

Related story: Dream deferred: Good kid's struggle with immigration policy

Image: Steven Soden

A DNA test used by investigators to identify victims of serial killer John Wayne Gacy has helped solve a 41-year-old New Jersey missing persons case, officials announced Tuesday.

Sixteen-year-old Steven Soden went missing on April 3, 1972, but his remains were not identified until 2012, when authorities matched them with a DNA sample from his sister.

Soden's relatives contacted the Cook County Sheriff's Office in 2011 after hearing about Sheriff Thomas Dart's efforts to identify several of Gacy's victims. They believed Soden may be one of them, officials said.

"We always had hopes that we'd somehow find him alive," Steven's brother, Ron Soden, 73, told NBC 4 New York Tuesday from his home in Tacoma, Wash. "In this day and age, it's so much easier to find someone over the Internet."

The teen, who lived at an orphanage, was last seen alive on April 3, 1972, running away with 12-year-old Donald Caldwell, from the Bass River Camp Grounds in Burlington County, N.J., during a group camping trip, officials said. Neither boy was ever seen again.

Soden may have headed to Chicago, where his biological father lived, his relatives suggested — and there he may have come into contact with Gacy.

Tim Boyle / Des Plaines Police Department vi

This is John Wayne Gacy's police arrest photo from Dec. 21, 1978. Following intensive research, investigation and surveillance, Gacy was arrested by the Des Plaines, Ill., Police Department on Thursday, Dec. 21, 1978.

Gacy killed 33 teenage boys and young men in Chicago from 1972 to 1978. He was executed for his crimes in 1994. Seven of his victims remain unidentified.

At Dart's request, a DNA sample was taken from Soden's sister, but there was no match between her and any of the unidentified Gacy victims.

In December 2012, however, her profile matched that of unidentified human skeletal remains found 13 years earlier in New Jersey.

Over the next few months, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office and New Jersey State Police conducted further investigation and obtained additional DNA samples from Soden's half siblings, including a paternal half sibling, to make an accurate identification.

Genetic testing was performed at the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification.

The remains were discovered in the woods in Burlington County in April 2000 — not far from where Soden was last seen.

New Jersey State Police say they're still searching for Caldwell as well as additional evidence in Soden's death, according to Philadelphia NBC affiliate WCAU. His exact cause of death is still unknown.

"You always hope for the best," Ron Soden told NBC 4 New York. "But when you finally get an answer, a partial answer…" He trailed off.

"It's sad," he continued. "The sense of him being so young, and the way it happened, and where it was. He probably ran away because he thought nobody cared about him. It's just not a good story."

Flood-weary residents in parts of the Midwest were still trying to stem the tide of murky river water Friday, as late snow-melt combined with days of spring rain sent rivers toward high-water records.

Floodwaters had begun an inch-by-inch retreat in inundated Peoria, Ill., after the Illinois River crested Tuesday at 29.35 feet, eclipsing a 70-year record. In central Indiana, more heavy rain through Wednesday morning prompted a request for voluntary evacuation along the Tippecanoe River near Lafayette.

The Grand River at Grand Rapids, Mich., which reached record levels, began to fall below flood stage Thursday and some of the hundreds of people evacuated were starting to return home.

Along the Mississippi, the biggest concern was that the flood is expected to linger into May, potentially straining longstanding earthen levees and hastily-built sandbag walls. No towns were in imminent danger.

Rain-soaked Chicago had its wettest April on record, the National Weather Service said, according to NBCChicago.com.

In tiny Dutchtown, Missouri, flooding from the Mississippi has become such a fact of life that residents expressed hope that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would buy them out of their homes.

Reuters

Local residents work with soldiers of the 1140th Engineer Battalion to build a sandbag wall near Dutchtown, Missouri, on Wednesday.

Thousands of sandbags were at the ready in anticipation of a crest Thursday.

Doyle Parmer, who doubles as town clerk and emergency management chief, told The Associated Press that residents had been "jumping through hoops" for three years seeking a buyout from FEMA as part of a federal program that sees flood-prone areas set aside for green space or a park. The AP said:

In order for that money to arrive, towns must prove that flooding is frequent and devastating enough for a buyout to be cost-effective, and Dutchtown hasn't filed a suitable one yet, said Melissa Janssen, mitigation branch chief for the FEMA region that includes Missouri.

Parmer said he and other residents were ready to get out.

"Sell the house, cut the grass and get the hell out of Dodge," he said.

For 40 years, Shirley Moss has lived in the same home in the town, but as the sandbags piled up yet again, she didn't hesitate when asked if she would take a government buyout.

"In a New York minute," Moss said from her double-wide mobile home. "I'm 75 years old — I can't fight this."

Meanwhile, in North Dakota residents got their first touch of good news on Wednesday when officials said the swollen Red River would crest at lower than anticipated levels next week, the AP reported.

Residents in Fargo and neighboring Moorhead, Minnesota, have been filling sandbags ahead of the expected fourth major Red River flood in the past five years after unseasonably cold weather delayed the annual thaw.

But the river was still expected to peak at possibly its second-highest level on record, and flood preparations in the north-central United States follow major flooding on rivers in Illinois, Missouri, Indiana and Michigan caused by heavy rain, the AP said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related:

• Full coverage from weather.com

This story was originally published on Thu Apr 25, 2013 5:39 AM EDT

Cook County Sheriff's Office

Police say Richard Vody bit off another man's ear during a dispute in a Chicago suburb Friday morning.

A 28-year-old man is charged with breaking into a suburban Chicago home and biting off another man's ear during an argument on Friday, according to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office.

Richard Vody, of Justice, Ill., forced his way into the victim’s home early Friday and, during a heated  dispute, leaned in and bit off half of the 26-year-old’s right ear, according to police. Authorities said the victim’s girlfriend also lived in the home and all three knew each other.

Firefighters responded to the scene and took the victim to an area hospital for treatment. With the help of Chicago police canine units, the missing part of the man’s ear was found Saturday near the home.

Vody is charged with home invasion, aggravated battery and domestic battery, according to a press release from the Cook County Sheriff’s Office.

He is currently out on $250,000 bond, and is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday.

Courtesy of Nancy Loo / WGN

A sinkhole in Chicago at 96th and Houston.

A driver was hospitalized Thursday after a large sinkhole opened up in the middle of the street and swallowed three cars on Chicago's South Side, police said.

The injured man was driving when the road buckled and caved in at 9600 South Houston Avenue near the Chicago Skyway, Chicago Police Department spokesman Mike Sullivan told NBCChicago.com.

He was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, Sullivan said.

Two cars were inside the hole when fire crews arrived. A third car, which was parked, slid into the hole after first responders got to the scene, NBCChicago.com reported.

The sinkhole is the result of a water main that broke in the area and is gushing water, Tom LaPorte, a spokesman for the Water Department, told the Chicago Tribune.

LaPorte said intense rain could have aggravated the cast iron water main that dates back to 1915.

Slideshow: Striking sinkholes: Earth opens up

Luis Echeverria / AP

A look at some of the most amazing sinkholes around the world.

Launch slideshow

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Massive sinkhole swallows Florida man

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M. Spencer Green / AP, file

Jeri Wright was charged with two counts of money laundering, two counts of making false statements to federal officers, and seven counts of giving false testimony to a grand jury.

CHICAGO -- The daughter of President Barack Obama's controversial former pastor was indicted on Wednesday on charges of money laundering and lying to federal authorities, a Justice Department spokeswoman said.

Jeri L. Wright, 47, the daughter of Jeremiah Wright, was accused of participating in a fraud scheme led by a former suburban police chief and the chief's husband that involved a $1.25 million state grant, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of Illinois in Springfield.

Wright, of the Chicago suburb of Hazel Crest, was charged with two counts of money laundering, two counts of making false statements to federal officers, and seven counts of giving false testimony to a grand jury.

The state grant was for a not-for-profit work and education program called We Are Our Brother's Keeper, owned by Regina Evans, former police chief of Country Club Hills, and her husband, Ronald W. Evans Jr.

According to the indictment, Wright, a close friend of the couple, received three checks in 2009 worth about $28,000 that were supposed to be for work related to the grant. About $20,000 of that was allegedly deposited back into accounts controlled by the Evanses.

Jeremiah Wright was the Chicago pastor whose inflammatory church sermons, which often condemned U.S. attitudes on race, poverty, the Iraq War and other issues, became a focus during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Obama quieted the controversy with a speech putting the quotes in the context of race relations.

The money laundering count Jeri Wright faces carries a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison, while the other charges carry penalties of up to five years in prison.

Jeri Wright could not be reached for comment. Prosecutor's office spokeswoman Sharon Paul did not know if she had yet retained a lawyer.

A Chicago shop owner who'd been robbed in the past grabbed a baseball bat and fought back when a pair of men came in intent on robbing the place.

Store surveillance cameras captured the bold brawl at Quizhpe's Gifts & Sports, in the Logan Square neighborhood, at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The robbers, one of them with a gun, apparently had no idea what they were in for when they walked into the shop.

"One of the guys, he said, 'Give me the money or you are dead,' and after that I was close to him and I tried to hit him with the bat, and the other guy he started shooting," said Luis Aucaquizhpi.

Aucaquizhpi's brother-in-law, 62-year-old Luis Quizphe, fended off the gunman with a baseball bat for a moment before the shooter tried to run away. Little did the robber know, however, that customers need to be buzzed in and out of the store. Seeing that they couldn't get out, one of the attackers returned to the counter and continued shooting.

Aucaquizhpi is seen in the video tossing a stool at the gunman and later chasing him with a fire extinguisher after the two robbers buzzed themselves out of the shop.

Quizphe was shot in the leg during the ordeal and was listed in good condition at Advocate Illinois Masonic Hospital on Wednesday evening. The man with the gun appears to also have shot his accomplice. Police said they found 10 shell casings on the floor.

Quizphe's son credited God for being on his dad's side.

"I thank God that nothing worse happened to him, that he's alive. I'm grateful for that," said Juan Quizphe.

Police said no arrests had been made in the case as of Wednesday afternoon. After getting away, the men, whom Aucaquizhpi described only as being black men, ran north on Western Avenue and then west on Belden Avenue before getting into a gray car.