The city saw another bloody weekend as seven people — including a teenager — were killed and 24 others were wounded in separate shootings since Friday evening.
Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy on Saturday defended the department’s anti-violence strategy, which he believes is taking root.
"We're not winning, we're not losing. We’re basically treading water," McCarthy said. He said that in the month of August, "we had some trouble because some of these retaliatory shootings are happening quicker than we can stop them."
The most recent fatal shooting happened early Sunday in the South Side Calumet Heights neighborhood.
Rashad Pratt, 28, was found at 2:58 a.m. with multiple gunshot wounds inside a vehicle near the intersection of East 91st Street and South East End Avenue, according to police and the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.
Pratt, of the 9000 block of South Ridgeland Avenue, was dead at the scene, authorities said. No one is in custody in connection with the slaying as of early Sunday.
About 1:20 p.m., Christopher Spraggins, 20, and Aaron Gaithan, 18, were fatally shot in the 7900 block of South St. Lawrence Avenue, authorities said.
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Spraggins, of the 300 block of East 76th Street, was dead on the scene in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood on the South Side, according to authorities.
Gaithan was shot in the leg and taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead at 2:14 p.m., according to the medical examiner’s office. His home address was not known.
The same attack left a 17-year-old girl a gunshot wound to the back, authorities said, and paramedics took her to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in good condition.
About 2:30 a.m. on Saturday, Stephin Wilkins, 23, was sitting in a vehicle with his girlfriend in the 4900 block of South Drexel Boulevard when two people walked up with a handgun and tried robbing him, police said.
Wilkins tried fighting the robbers and was shot multiple times, police said. Wilkins was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he died, authorities said.
On Friday, a teenager and two men were killed in separate shootings.
About 8 p.m., Phillip McCall, 34, was shot twice in the back in the 8800 block of South Indiana Avenue, authorities said. McCall, of the 200 block of East 89th Street, was pronounced dead at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, the medical examiner’s office said.
About 5:42 p.m., Lucian Dreux, 17, stood outside in the 7900 block of South Drexel Avenue when someone riding a mountain bike fired shots, authorities said.
Dreux, of the 8000 block of South Ingleside Avenue, suffered gunshot wounds to the face and abdomen, authorities said, and doctors pronounced him dead at Stroger Hospital.
A 42-year-old woman was also shot and was listed in good condition at Stroger Hospital, police said.
About the same time that Dreux was shot, 30-year-old Noah Cruz suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the chest in the 3000 block of South Wallace Street, authorities said. Cruz, of the 800 block of West 31st Street, was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he later died, authorities said.
A total of 24 people were wounded in shootings since Friday evening. One of the youngest victims reported by police was a 15-year-old girl, who suffered a gunshot wound to the chest Friday night as she smoked marijuana in the Roseland neighborhood on the Far South Side.
The girl and a teenage boy were hanging out in the 0 to 100 block of West 112th Street when the boy moved a gun and it fired, police said. Paramedics took the girl to the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital, where she was listed in critical condition, authorities said.
Police said the shooting appeared to be accidental.
