Jeremy Gorner , Peter Nickeas and Elvia MalagonContact ReportersChicago Tribune
In the weeks since he was shot in the back, 10-year-old Tavon Tanner has undergone several operations to repair the damage from the bullet that tore through his small body and remains lodged between his shoulder and his chest.
The fifth-grader is still in the hospital and still in pain, according to his mother Mellanie Washington. He doesn't talk as much and cries more often. Sometimes he'll ask if police have arrested the person who shot him.
"I tell him they will soon," Washington said. "They will." No one was in custody as of Monday.
Tavon was among more than 400 people shot in Chicago this month. There have been at least 78 homicides, marking August as the most violent month in the city in almost 20 years, according to data provided by the Chicago Police Department. And there are two more days to go.
Chicago has recorded 487 homicides and more than 2,800 people shot so far this year, compared to 491 homicides and 2,988 people shot all of last year, according to Tribune data.
Chicago has a lower homicide rate than many other U.S. cities that are smaller in population. But this year, the city has recorded more homicides and shooting victims than New York City and Los Angeles combined, even though the two cities are larger than Chicago's population of roughly 2.6 million.
New York, with more than three times the population of Chicago, has recorded 760 shooting victims and logged 222 homicides, according to NYPD crime statistics through Aug. 21. In Los Angeles, a city of about 4 million, 176 people have been slain and 729 people shot, according to LAPD crime data through Aug. 20.
The gun violence in Chicago has been concentrated on the South and West sides that have lost population over the years as other areas have grown.
The Harrison District covers a lot of the Lawndale neighborhood, where Tavon lives. The boy was playing out front with his twin sister in the 3900 block of West Polk Street when someone fired as many as nine shots.
He collapsed as he followed his mother through the front door. His twin sister, Taniyah, sat next to him, holding his hand, trying to keep him calm, according to their mother. “Twin don’t leave me, twin don’t leave me," she kept yelling.
Tavon was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he underwent nearly four hours of surgery, Washington said. The bullet damaged his pancreas, intestines, kidney and spleen as it entered his lower back and lodged in his chest, she said.
Tavon was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he underwent nearly four hours of surgery, Washington said. The bullet damaged his pancreas, intestines, kidney and spleen as it entered his lower back and lodged in his chest, she said.
In the hours before Tavon was shot, a man in his early 20s was shot in the head at a basketball court down the block where Tavon was not allowed to play. And an older man was shot and killed about four blocks away.
Tavon's twin sister started school last week without her brother. Washington, who has spent the past couple of weeks in the hospital with her son, said she feels restless as her son’s future remains uncertain.
“Oh, I’m real tired,” she said. “Just waiting on him to get better.”
Chicago police officials have cited the constant flow of illegal firearms through dangerous neighborhoods and an intractable gang problem – with some disputes beginning on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter – as strong contributors to the city's violence.
In recent months, police Superintendent Eddie Johnson has been pushing lawmakers in Springfield to pass legislation requiring harsher sentences for criminals arrested repeatedly for carrying illegal guns.
Earlier this month, Johnson met with several police chiefs from across the country to discuss the nation's gun violence problem, noting that over 40 U.S. cities experienced spikes in violence last year after years of decreases in the number of killings.
Cities like Milwaukee and Washington, D.C – both much smaller than Chicago in population – saw homicide spikes that they haven’t experienced in more than two decades.
The surge in violence comes at a tumultuous time for the Chicago Police Department. It is still dealing with the aftermath of the court-ordered release of video showing Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting Laquan McDonald 16 times, killing the teen as he walked away from police with a knife in his hand.
The public furor from the video’s release last November led Mayor Rahm Emanuel to fire Garry McCarthy as the superintendent. Murder charges were filed against Van Dyke, the head of the police oversight agency resigned, and the U.S. Department of Justice began a wide-ranging civil rights investigation into the department.
The surge in violence comes at a tumultuous time for the Chicago Police Department. It is still dealing with the aftermath of the court-ordered release of video showing Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting Laquan McDonald 16 times, killing the teen as he walked away from police with a knife in his hand.
The public furor from the video’s release last November led Mayor Rahm Emanuel to fire Garry McCarthy as the superintendent. Murder charges were filed against Van Dyke, the head of the police oversight agency resigned, and the U.S. Department of Justice began a wide-ranging civil rights investigation into the department.
Earlier this year, the Tribune reported a precipitous drop in morale among Chicago police officers, based on interviews with officers.
Baltimore officially has had 200 homicide victims in 2016 after an autopsy confirmed a 42-year-old man found dead Friday just west of downtown had been fatally stabbed.
The victim, identified Monday as Franswhaun Smith, was found Friday about 7:50 a.m. in the 700 block of Murphy Lane, in the Heritage Crossing neighborhood that was formerly the site of the Murphy Homes public housing development.
Smith was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said an autopsy confirmed he had been stabbed in the back.
It is the fifth consecutive year Baltimore's homicide tally has reached 200 after recording 197 in all of 2011. That was the first time the city had recorded fewer than 200 victims since the late 1970s.
ast year, 344 people were killed in Baltimore, the city's highest highest-per capita rate ever.
As of Aug. 20, the most recent data available, homicides were down 11 percent compared with the same time last year, while nonfatal shootings were up slightly, from 414 at that time last year to 427 this year.
Police did not release any additional details about Smith's death. They asked anyone with information to call detectives at 1-866-7LOCKUP.
Court records show Smith pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 1998, receiving a sentence of 30 years with all but five years suspended. After three violations of his probation, he was sentenced to 15 years of the suspended time in 2004. A spokesman for the state prison system confirmed Smith was released in July 2014.
Attempts to reach relatives were not immediately successful.
Smith was one of several recent homicide victims. Over the weekend, police arrested 23-year-old Jerome Arnold and charged him with first-degree murder in the death of a woman he confessed to killing in a wooded area in Brooklyn.
The investigation began when police in Howard County received a call Friday afternoon from a relative of Arnold's in Ellicott City, who suspected that Arnold may have been involved in a crime in Baltimore. Arnold was taken to Baltimore police headquarters, where he told police he had killed Lisa Studley, 36, and left her body in a wooded area off St. Margaret Street, according to charging documents.
Police found Studley's body on the ground with head trauma and in a pool of blood, police wrote in charging documents.
Arnold described Studley to police as his girlfriend, and said he had lured her into the woods using a ruse that he wanted to "talk." He then struck her several times in the head with a hammer, police said.
Arnold said he put his bloody clothes into a backpack and put on a new outfit. Police later recovered the backpack and bloody clothes.
Attempts to reach Studley's family were not successful.
Arnold appeared Monday before a district judge and was ordered held without bond pending trial. He did not have a lawyer listed in court records.
A 48-year-old man also was shot in the chest in West Baltimore early Monday, police said.
Officers were called at 1:55 a.m. to the 2300 block of Lauretta Ave., where they found the victim, who was not named.
Police did not release the man's condition, but said he was conscious and breathing when he was taken to a hospital.
Anyone with information may call 410-396-2221 or Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7LOCKUP.
Baltimore Sun reporter Colin Campbell contributed to this article.
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