The police district that surrounds Garfield Park on the West Side bears the brunt of gun violence over the long holiday weekend, and nowhere is this more evident than on the short stretch of Gladys Avenue.
Three teenagers were shot on the porch, leaving a 17-year-old girl on life support. A man was killed while driving a car a block away. Another man was found shot dead four blocks to the east.
Across the park less than a mile away, a 14 year old boy was killed and a 15 year old boy was seriously injured. In all, 15 people were shot in the Harrison police district from Friday evening into the early hours of Tuesday. Four of them died.
Across the city, at least 75 people were shot over the weekend celebrating Father's Day and Juneteenth. At least 13 of them died. It was the meanest and deadliest weekend of the year.
It was the second weekend in a row that the Harrison police district recorded the most people shot and the most people killed.
Interim Police Supt. Fred Waller blamed much of the district's violence on rival drugs and gangs, though he went out of his way to say the girl in critical condition “probably wasn't the target”.
Waller said the department was “reformatting things” in the district but would not provide additional details.
“11 (Harrison) has always been a challenging district,” Waller said Tuesday, repeating a description he gave last Monday.
“We took a deeper dive to see what we could do at 11 that worked at a few others,” added Waller. “11 is kind of a place where challenges just keep coming. So we're going to reformat some of the thinking and some of the strategy there.”
Late Monday night, three teenagers were standing on the porch of the 3800 block of West Gladys Avenue when someone in a dark sedan opened fire.
A 17 year old girl was hit in the eye and taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition. He remains on life support, according to Waller.
Another girl, 17 years old, was hit in the left leg and buttocks and a 19 year old man suffered a gunshot wound to the arm. Both are listed as in good condition.
Despite the weekend's high casualty toll, Waller stated that some of the department's strategies had been effective and emphasized that “no one feels that this was a wasted effort.
“Sometimes repairs are behind the scenes and the process is slow,” he says.
Waller made his comments at the new Urban Resilience Network Center run by Bright Star Community Outreach. Supervisors say such initiatives will help build safe spaces in neighborhoods by providing free counselors and hotline services.
“Gun violence can happen in seconds, but the trauma from it can last a lifetime,” he said. “That's why initiatives like this trauma center are so important.”
The center's help hotline, 833-TUR-N123, is available to anyone across the city who has experienced trauma or violence.