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55 shot, 11 fatally, in weekend shootings in Chicago

In this March 30, 2017, file photo, Georgia Jackson, 72, is overcome with emotion after learning that her two grandsons were found fatally shot in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood. (Chris Sweda / AP)
By Elyssa Cherney and Elvia Malagon Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO – Eleven people were killed and 44 were wounded in weekend shootings in Chicago from Friday afternoon to Monday morning, including an attack that left a 10-year-old boy dead and a police-involved shooting after police said a passenger in a traffic stop had refused to put down a gun.

More than half of the victims were hurt or killed during an 18-hour period from Saturday night to Sunday morning, police said. In that period, three people were killed in the Lawndale, South Shore and Princeton Park neighborhoods. Among those killed was Willie Cooper, 58, who worked at the South Side anti-violence organization Lilydale Outreach.

The night before, 10-year-old Gustavo Garcia was fatally shot in the back while riding in a car with his stepfather and another man in the East Side neighborhood on the Southeast Side. About 11:15 p.m. Friday in the 3500 block of East 97th Street, a gray sedan pulled up next to the SUV Gustavo was riding in, and someone inside the sedan then opened fire, police said.

After the barrage of gunfire, the driver of Gustavo’s car tried to get away quickly and happened to approach the scene of a fatal motorcycle accident in the 3200 block of East 95th Street, about a half-mile from the shooting, police said. The occupants got the attention of an officer at the crash.

Gustavo was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital and pronounced dead at 12:08 a.m. Saturday, according to the medical examiner’s office.

He is the fourth child to die in a shooting in Chicago so far this year, according to data compiled by the Tribune. In total, 14 children 12 years old or younger have been shot so far this year, according to Tribune data.

On the Northwest Side, a man believed to be 18 years old was shot after police said he failed to put down a gun and threatened officers during a traffic stop early Sunday.

Just before 3:10 a.m., a uniformed officer and a sergeant for the Grand Central district stopped a vehicle carrying four people in the 2800 block of North Mulligan Avenue in the Belmont Central neighborhood, said Al Nagode, deputy chief for the Chicago Police Department.

When the 18-year-old, one of the passengers, did not put his weapon down, the two officers opened fire.

A weapon was recovered at the scene, said Anthony Guglielmi, a police spokesman.