Chicago’s weekend bloodshed included nine murders and 56 shooting victims – and an alderman was assaulted by a group of men who appeared intoxicated and high on illicit drugs.
The Chicago Sun-Times also reported that one of the gunshot victims was a 3-year-old kid. The kid was possibly shot by accident, Saturday morning in a South Side home.
The child was shot in his back around about 10:45 a.m. in the 9300 block of South Escanaba Avenue, police said. The boy was hospitalized in good condition.
Chicago police recorded 46 shooting incidents involving 56 victims from 6 p.m. Friday to shortly before midnight Sunday night and during that time, nine killings were recorded.
He was taken to Advocate Trinity Hospital and later transferred to the University of Chicago’s Comer Children’s Hospital in good condition.
Five people were killed in a four-hour period on Saturday morning when the heaviest gun violence occurred. Two men, Charles Jackson Jr., 34, and a 29-year-old victim who has yet to be identified, were shot and killed in a drive-by shooting in Lawndale on the West Side. Someone in a red vehicle opened fire in the 1900 block of South Saint Louis Avenue around 12:15 a.m., according to police.
A “domestic disturbance” in the 6500 blocks of South Harvard prompted an officer-involved gunshot at 10:55 a.m. Sunday. When responding officers encountered a male armed with a knife, one officer discharged his service weapon, striking a 28-year-old man who later died. Until the outcome of the investigation, In the meanwhile, the officers involved were placed on routine administrative duties.
On Saturday night, Alderman James Cappleman of the 46th Ward “was the victim of a battery” in the 4700 blocks of North Racine in Chicago police’s 9th District – Town Hall, police spokesman Tom Ahern confirmed in a tweet. Ahern said the alderman refused medical treatment, and a suspect was taken into custody as charges are pending. No other information was released as Area 3 detectives investigate.
The Alderman of the 46th Ward was the victim of a battery this evening in the 4700 block of N. Racine in @ChicagoCAPS19. The Alderman declined medical treatment. The offender was taken into custody. Charges are pending. @Area3Detectives are investigating. #ChicagoPolice pic.twitter.com/OKqEGRFF1n
— Tom Ahern (@TomAhernCPD) September 19, 2021
Speaking to the Chicago Tribune, Cappleman described how he was put in a headlock and struck repeatedly with a piece of a broken table after coming to the corner of Racine and Leland avenues, where young families have complained to him about a disruptive group that has spent the past few weeks gathering outside on upside garbage cans turned into seats drinking and doing drugs.
Cappleman said, “In the past two weeks, it’s just gotten out of control again. And the problem is when you can get them to leave one corner they just go to the next corner, I talked to this guy and I said, ‘This can’t keep going on. Residents are rightly upset about this.’ They are out there just drinking nonstop and drugging and that kind of stuff. It’s caused a lot of concern to the community.”
He’s growing frustrated about those struggling with addiction, as offenders arrested by police officers are often just released back on the streets.
He said, “We’re going to see what we can do to get this guy this help. But how do you help someone who is refusing help to address their addiction?” he continued,“I know it’s not just arresting them because arrests don’t always matter. When you’re released from Cook County Jail, you go right back to the streets.”
Cappleman said he’s visited the area periodically to collect information before calling police. He said his husband, Richard, had come to the corner earlier Saturday to remove the garbage cans. Cappleman removed a table that was sitting in the middle of the sidewalk and turned around the corner when he was met by a group of at least eight men lying on the ground. One noticed the table, and at least three of the men then attacked Capplemen, who was placed in a headlock and struck with a blunt force object believed to be a piece of the table, which broke in half during the melee.
“He could’ve had a knife, That’s not the way I want to die,” Cappleman said.
Cappleman added, “We can’t arrest ourselves out of this, For most humans, for most living creatures, we respond to negative and positive reinforcement. It can’t be all negative, but it can’t be all positive. We have to find that right balance. And we know we’ve found the right balance when it produces the intended result. For this guy, we’ve not found that right balance.”
Because Cappleman is a public servant who was carrying out duties related to his job, the assailants could face a felony charge, according to the Tribune.
Sources: Foxnews, Foxbangor, Chicago.suntimes, News.wttw, Nbcchicago, Chicagotribune