2 slain in Woodlawn as Chicago surpasses 100 homicides this year

Two men were shot to death early Saturday in the Woodlawn neighborhood on the South Side, bringing the number of homicides in Chicago this year to 101.

Just before 1 a.m., two people in hooded sweatshirts opened fire into a crowd at a party in the 6500 block of South Drexel, hitting 20-year-old Lance A. Jeffersons in the face and torso, and 37-year-old Samuel D. Head in the chest, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Jeffersons, of the Washington Park neighborhood, and Head, who lived on the same block as the shooting, both died at the scene, authorities said.

Additionally, a 29-year-old woman suffered a graze wound to the thigh and was taken in good condition to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. No one was in custody for the shooting, which was considered gang-related.

The men were the 100th and 101st homicide victims in Chicago during the first 56 days of 2017, according to Chicago Sun-Times data.

Ninety-six people have been shot to death in the city since Jan. 1, including two killed by on-duty Chicago Police officers, data shows.

Four people have been fatally stabbed, and the death of 2-month Aliya Acosta — the youngest victim this year — was ruled a homicide by child abuse in Humboldt Park. The oldest victim, 62-year-old Eddie Wade, was killed in a drive-by shooting in the same neighborhood.

At least 84 of the victims were people of color, most of them male, according to information from the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Just seven victims were female. Black or Hispanic men between 18 and 39 years old accounted for nearly two-thirds of the victims.

Eighty-two of the killings have happened on the South, West or Southwest sides of the city. The Austin neighborhood has logged the most homicides at 12, while Brighton Park and Englewood have seen eight each.

A toddler, 2-year-old Lavontay White, was shot dead in North Lawndale during a horrific three-day stretch earlier this month that also saw 11-year-old Takiya Holmes and 12-year-old Kanari Gentry-Bowers gunned down. Nine more people younger than 18 have been killed, data shows.

Pushing the city toward its grim milestone was a bloody Wednesday earlier this week, when seven people were shot dead across Chicago, the most fatal shootings in a single day this year. At least 400 more people have been wounded in city shootings.