Memorial Day weekend violence down in Chicago compared to last year

Six people were killed, including a 16-year-old boy, and at least 44 others were wounded in Chicago shootings throughout the Memorial Day weekend.

The weekend’s latest fatal shooting happened about 2:50 a.m. Tuesday in the Washington Park neighborhood on the South Side. Krystoffer Kelly, 21, was sitting in a vehicle in the 5700 block of South Prairie when someone fired shots, striking him multiple times, including “once in the back through his heart,” according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Kelly was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:54 a.m. He lived in the Roseland neighborhood on the Far South Side.

About 9:50 p.m. Monday, 17-year-old Jaywan Freeman was killed and two other people were wounded in a shooting in the South Side Englewood neighborhood. Freeman, another 17-year-old boy and a 20-year-old man were standing in the street in the 6900 block of South Harvard when a male approached and opened fire, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Freeman was shot in the head and was pronounced dead at the scene. The other teenager was shot in the left shoulder and was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn; the 20-year-old went to Stroger Hospital with a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Both of their conditions were stabilized.

About four hours earlier, 18-year-old Jervon Morris was shot to death in the Longwood Manor neighborhood on the South Side. He was shot in the head about 5:40 p.m. in the 9800 block of South Wallace, authorities said. Witnesses told investigators that a male fired multiple shots at the victim. Morris, who lived about a block away from the shooting, was pronounced dead at the scene at 5:58 p.m.

A 52-year-old man was killed in a domestic-related shooting at 1:32 p.m. Monday in the West Side Austin neighborhood. Oscar L. Clay got into an argument with a 27-year-old man in the 1700 block of North Narragansett when the younger man pulled out a handgun and shot him, authorities said. Clay, who lived in the same neighborhood, was pronounced dead at the scene at 1:45 p.m. The shooter was not in custody.

Earlier Monday, two people were found shot to death in a murder-suicide in the South Side Bronzeville neighborhood. Tiara Goodman, 25, and a 32-year-old man, whose identity has not been released, were found about 10:50 a.m. in the hallway of an apartment building in the 2900 block of South State, near the Dearborn Homes housing project, authorities said. Both had been shot in the head and were pronounced dead at the scene. A gun was recovered at the scene. Autopsies ruled Goodman’s death a homicide, and the man’s death a suicide. Goodman lived on the same block as the shooting. The man’s name had not been released pending notification of family.

Daishawn Moore, 16, was gunned down about 6:30 p.m. Sunday in a Lawndale neighborhood drive-by shooting that also left a 16-year-old girl wounded on the Southwest Side. The two teens were in a gangway in the 1600 block of South St. Louis when someone fired shots at them from a passing gray vehicle, authorities said. Moore, who lived in the same neighborhood, was shot in the back and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he died at 6:41 p.m. The girl suffered a graze wound to the back and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital.

Two men were wounded in a drive-by shooting at 1:24 a.m. Monday outside a BP gas station in the Archer Heights neighborhood on the Southwest Side. The men, ages 21 and 22, were driving south at 1:24 a.m. in the 4500 block of South Pulaski when someone in a dark-colored SUV fired shots in their direction, police said. The younger man was shot in the right knee, while the older man suffered a gunshot wound to the right leg. They were both taken to Christ Medical Center, where their conditions were stabilized.

“This is sad, man,” said the 37-year-old cashier at the gas station, who asked to remain anonymous. “I’m sick of seeing this s–t. I wish it would just end already, this violence is not necessary.”

At least 39 other people were shot in Chicago between 7 p.m. Friday and 5 a.m. Monday. Follow city violence over the holiday with the Sun-Times weekend shootings tracker.

This year’s holiday weekend has been less violent than last year’s.

In 2016, 62 people were shot, six of them fatally, by about midnight Monday of the long holiday weekend, which is widely viewed as the unofficial start of summer — with an accompanying surge in city gun violence. By the end of that weekend, 69 people had been shot, leaving 6 dead. Twelve people were killed and 43 wounded over 2015’s holiday.

To combat this year’s carnage, Chicago Police are flooding the streets with 1,300 extra patrol officers through early Tuesday.

That happens to be about the same number of people who have been shot in the city so far this year: 1,338, according to Chicago Sun-Times data. Of those, 229 have died.

On Sunday night into Monday morning, 30 people were arrested in an anti-violence initiative across the city, according to a statement from police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. Seven illegal guns were seized and more than 40 traffic citations were issued.

Seventy-seven people were arrested Saturday night into Sunday morning, Guglielmi said. Ten illegal guns were seized and 176 traffic citations were issued.

On Friday night, 53 people were arrested, including 30 who were arrested during pre-emptive raids. Four illegal guns were seized and more than 70 traffic citations were issued.