IL 5 found slain in South Side home
- From: indigoace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Indigo Ace)
- Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:47:09 GMT
From the Chicago Tribune--
5 found slain in South Side home
Deaths add to already violent week in city
By Sara Olkon, Antonio Olivo and Angela Rozas | Tribune reporters
April 24, 2008
Gun violence that swept through swaths of Chicago over the weekend
pressed into midweek Wednesday when five people were found slain in a
South Side home.
The afternoon crackle of gunfire in the Chatham neighborhood boosted a
grim statistic: In fewer than seven days, the city has seen at least
40 shootings resulting in more than a dozen deaths.
Many of the recent shootings have been attributed to ongoing gang
feuds on the South and West Sides, but Chicago police spokeswoman
Monique Bond said Wednesday's quintuple homicide may have been
committed by "some known affiliate of the victims."
Chief of Detectives Thomas Byrne said the house in Chatham appeared to
be ransacked, but he was not sure whether anything had been taken. He
said the victims, all believed to be in their 20s, were found shot on
the first floor of the two-story home.
Calumet Area Deputy Chief Eugene Williams said, "This does not appear
to be a random act."
A police source said investigators are looking into whether there was
illegal activity going on in the home.
Police arrived at the home in the 7600 block of South Rhodes Avenue
about 3:45 p.m. after receiving a 911 call.
A spokesman for the Cook County medical examiner's office said all
five people suffered gunshot wounds. Autopsies are scheduled for
Thursday. Officials said they had no suspects in custody but were
"talking to a number of people."
Bernard Scales said he is the grandfather of one of the victims and
was notified by police that his grandson, Tony, 25, was slain in the
shooting.
Bernard Scales said his grandson was at a barbecue at the house
Wednesday.
"I knew all of them kids," Scales said. "They were all raised up
together around here. They were all really good kids. They weren't
gangbangers and they weren't into drug-dealing. I bet somebody over
there thought they were into something, but they weren't."
Scales said the bodies were found by his other grandson, Terry, 24.
Family members said police were questioning Terry Scales late
Wednesday.
The family said Tony Scales had been working as a telemarketer and was
recently hired at a Ford dealership.
Others who thought their friends and relatives were among the victims
gathered near the site. The Tribune is not identifying the other
people named by relatives because authorities had not verified them.
Cheryl Flowers said her 22-year-old daughter had been living in the
home where the victims were discovered. She said her daughter worked
as a dancer at a nightclub and had been living in the home with one of
the men for about a year.
Santana Davis, 26, said he has been a friend of one of the victims
since they were 3. He said the father of another of the victims is a
pastor at a South Side church.
Davis said the two women were friends of two of the men, and that the
three men lived together in the home where they were shot.
"The only thing I can see is they probably thought they had some
money, they probably ran into the house and killed them," Davis said.
"They weren't gangbangers, all they do is go to clubs and have fun."
Jayson Alfred said one of the victims was his younger brother, who he
said was a real estate broker and had two young children.
"It was probably a robbery or something, jealousy," Alfred said. "He
didn't have any enemies."
Ald. Freddrenna Lyle (6th) said her office had not received any
complaints about activity at the home.
Lyle, who lives three blocks away, said residents told her the people
in the home had just recently moved in.
Police said they think the last homicide of this scope in Chicago came
in 2003 when six people were killed in a warehouse in the 3900 block
of South Wallace Street.
Neighbors in Chatham on Wednesday gathered by the dozens behind yellow
police tape in the block of aging brick bungalows. Opinions on the
house's residents varied, with some neighbors saying they regularly
saw cars coming and going, and others claiming they'd seen and heard
little from the people who lived there.
Many said they were disgusted but not shocked by the afternoon
shooting.
Shante Bradford, 30, a machine operator who leaves for work at 4 a.m.,
said the neighborhood is so bad he worries about getting robbed each
morning when he goes to his car parked on the street.
"It's really nothing. Death is nothing," said Bradford, who lives a
half-block from the crime scene.
Over the weekend, 36 people were shot and seven were killed across
Chicago in what police said were primarily gang-related incidents,
many in the Englewood and nearby Chicago Lawn police districts.
On Monday night, a 28-year-old man was killed and four others were
shot at a McDonald's restaurant in the 7600 block of South Vincennes
Avenue. Wednesday's shooting occurred near the border of the Englewood
and Gresham police districts, an area heavily populated with members
of the Gangster Disciples street gang.
Michelle Lucas, 49, who has lived in Chatham all her life, blames the
neighborhood problems on the influx of new residents whom she said
have poured in from the Robert Taylor, Stateway Gardens and Ida B.
Wells housing projects that have either come down or will soon be
shuttered.
"It's just getting bad these last two, three years," Lucas said. "We
don't have a say-so over who moves into the community."
Antoine Edwards, 30, also grew up in area.
"It's been terrible," he said of the recent violence-scarred years.
"Everybody's hungry out here" to make money.
Edwards, an auto mechanic and father of three, said he doesn't allow
his kids to play outside. Instead, when he can, he takes them to
places like restaurants or the movies.
At noon Wednesday, hours before the South Side shooting, members of
the anti-violence group CeaseFire, along with other community
organizations, gathered to announce a plan to flood violent "hot
spots" in the city with residents and outreach workers on weekend
nights throughout the summer.
"We believe we shouldn't have to have SWAT come into our neighborhoods
when we have able-bodied people who can stand up to this violence,"
said Rev. Robin Hood of Clergy Committed to Community.
Tio Hardiman, director of mediation services for CeaseFire, said the
group, which is operating on a skeleton staff after it lost more than
$6 million in state funding, will attempt to train residents to
peacefully resolve potentially violent conflicts, and will ask adult
men in high-risk neighborhoods to agree to mentor one child on their
block.
"You can change the gun laws all day long, but if you don't chance the
mind-set of these young people, it's not going to matter," Hardiman
said. "They've already got all the guns they need."
Tribune staff reporters Kristen Kridel, Jeremy Gorner, Mary Owen, Tina
Shah, Dan P. Blake and Rex W. Huppke contributed to this report.
solkon @tribune.com
aolivo @tribune.com
arozas @tribune.com
Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-south-side-dead-apr24,0,1646804,full.story
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