Thursday, May 30, 2013

South Side Shootings In Chicago: 56-Year-Old Among 4 Killed, 11 More Hurt In Overnight Shootings

A 56-year-old woman who was found in the South Shore neighborhood with a single gunshot wound was among four people killed in a violent 12-hour span that left 11 more injured in shootings Wednesday night.

Police out on routine patrol heard gunshots near where the unidentified woman's body was found and discovered her lying on the sidewalk near East 79th Street and South East End Avenue about 11:45 p.m. with a gunshot wound to the head, the Sun-Times reports.

The woman was taken in critical condition to an area hospital but died early Thursday. Witnesses told police the woman didn't appear to be an intended target.

The shootings got off to an early start, with the first victim killed around 1 p.m. The 25-year-old man shot in the neck and side at 122nd and Halsted in the city's West Pullman neighborhood was taken to an area hospital and pronounced dead, according to the Tribune. Police believe the shooting to be gang-related.

Roughly an hour later, 34-year-old Michael Kizer was fatally shot in Roseland by two men in the 0-100 block of West 107th Street. The Tribune reports Kizer was pronounced dead about an hour after the shooting, around 3:11 p.m.

Just before 7 p.m., a 36-year-old man was fatally shot on the 7500 block of South Carpenter Street while apparently sitting on a lawn chair drinking a beer. The Sun-Times reports police believe someone walked up to the man, whose name is being withheld pending family notification, and shot him twice in the head.

Eleven more people were injured in shootings all on the South Side the same day President Barack Obama returned to his hometown to raise money for congressional Democrats.

Obama took a moment to address the violence plaguing the neighborhoods around his Kenwood home Wednesday night, according to DNAinfo Chicago.

"There are still kids just a few miles from here who are threatened by gun violence, who aren't in a school that is giving them what they need to compete in this 21st century and whose prospects are dim. If we're honest — not because they don't have the innate capacity, but because we as a society have decided that's not our priority," the president said.

The four killings brought the May 2013 total for homicides to 40, according to RedEye's homicide tracker; 36 of those were gun-related homicides. Homicide totals for the same time in May last year stood at 51 while in 2011, month-to-date May homicides stood at 39.

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