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3 killed, 33 wounded in weekend gun violence in Chicago
By Chicago Tribune staff
Three people were killed and at least 33 were wounded by gunfire in the Chicago over the weekend.
The three shooting deaths -- plus one person killed in a stabbing -- mark a total of 203 homicides in Chicago so far this year, up from 175 in the same time frame last year, according to an analysis of a Chicago Tribune database on homicides and shootings.
A total of 1,187 people have been shot in Chicago so far this year, also up from 1,045 people shot in the same time period last year.
Among those killed over the weekend was 21-year-old James Jones, who family members said died Saturday afternoon while shielding his mother from gunfire in South Chicago.
Jones and his mother, Alicia Jones, were on a porch in the 8400 block of South Colfax Avenue when a gunman approached from a gangway and opened fire, according to family and police.
"He used his body to shield her, to save her," Dietra Luckett, Alicia Jones' sister, said after the shooting.
Family members said Jones was one of Alicia Jones' four children and the third of her children to be killed in Chicago. Luckett said she believed the 21-year-old man was the target of the shooting, and police said the shooting was gang-related.
Saturday night, an 18-year-old man was killed in West Humboldt Park. He was walking with another with another man in the 4200 block of West Division Street about 11:20 p.m. when someone walked up and shot him in the chest. He was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
As of Monday morning, the Cook County medical examiner's office still had not released the 18-year-old's name.
On Sunday morning, a 27-year-old man was found dead in a car in South Austin on the city's West Side.
The man was found about 10 a.m. after police responded to a call of an unresponsive person inside a car in the 100 block of North Parkside Avenue. Police found that the man had been shot in his back, and he was pronounced dead on the scene.
Drugs were found in the car, and the shooting may be narcotics-related, police said. The man had not been identified as of early Monday.
From 3 p.m. Friday through 6 a.m. Monday morning, at least another 33 people were wounded in gun violence across the city, police said. Thirty of those who were wounded were shot after 2 p.m. Saturday.
Also over the weekend, a man was shot by a police officer early Saturday morning in the city's South Shore neighborhood. Police have not provided the 23-year-old man's condition but said he was shot after he pointed a gun toward an officer who was responding to calls of people with guns near 70th Street and Merrill Avenue.
Late Sunday night, a 23-year-old man was fatally stabbed in the 600 block of South Justine Street in Englewood during an argument, police said. The 23-year-old man, who was not identified as of Monday morning, was the fourth person killed over the weekend.
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