PHOENIX — Chris Paul walked up the stairs and took a seat in front of the NBA Finals logo, a climb that took him 16 years to complete.
The Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks are used to enduring long waits.
They came into the NBA together in 1968 and between them have managed to win one championship. They’ve combined for only one trip to the Finals since the mid-1970s.
Now here they both are, a couple of unfamiliar contestants to finish off a most unusual season.
“Walking into here, seeing Mr. Larry on every poster,” Suns center Deandre Ayton said, referring to the Larry O’Brien Trophy, “it gave me goosebumps.”
Imagine the feeling if he’s on the first Suns team to win an NBA championship.
Game 1 is Tuesday night in Phoenix, which hasn’t hosted an NBA Finals game since Michael Jordan’s ChicagoBulls completed their first three-peat here in 1993. The Suns’ only other chance was in 1976, when they lost to Boston.
Giannis Antetokounmpo’s status remains unknown, with Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer saying he had no update on the injured superstar’s knee.
“Without him, we have to do it by committee,” Bucks guard Khris Middleton said.
It’s a whole new setting for the 36-year-old Paul, who acknowledged one of the differences. Home teams usually practice at their training facility, but the workout on the eve of the NBA Finals is in the arena.
“It’s still basketball,” the point guard said. “I think we’re all locked in to the goal at hand.”
Milwaukee won a championship in 1971, so long ago that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was still known as Lew Alcindor when he and Oscar Robertson were perhaps the top tandem in the league. The Bucks had drafted Alcindor with the No. 1 pick in 1969 after winning a coin flip against the Suns.
The Bucks got back in 1974 but haven’t been seen in the finals since.
They have been closing in over the last few years. Milwaukee had the best record in the NBA in both 2018-19 and 2019-20 and was two games away from the NBA Finals in that first season. They came back better after acquiring guard Jrue Holiday before this season.
“To get these four wins is going to be difficult but really excited for it,” Holiday said.
The Suns had been going nowhere, not even making the playoffs since 2010. They were 19-63 just two seasons ago, tying for the second-worst record in the league.
But an undefeated run in their eight restart games in the Walt Disney World bubble last summer sent them into this season with momentum, and they entered it with a new leader when they acquired Paul from Oklahoma City.
Besides Paul’s All-Star play, the Suns needed the right veteran to bring out the best in young stars Devin Booker and Ayton. Phoenix finished with the second-best record in the league, knocked out the defending champion Lakers in the first round, swept MVP Nikola Jokic’s Denver Nuggets and then shook off the absence of Paul for two games to beat the Clippers in the Western Conference finals.
Paul was out for coronavirus health and safety protocols, which every team had to work around this season. Numerous stars also dealt with injuries and the Bucks are hoping Antetokounmpo can overcome his.
The two-time MVP missed Games 5 and 6 of the East finals after hyperextending his left knee when he leaped to defend a lob in Game 4, but Middleton and Holiday led the Bucks past Atlanta in both games.
“I think guys have done a great job of adjusting with him out, with him not out there in two of the most important games of our season,” Middleton said.
Some things to know about the series:
GIANNIS UPDATE
Budenholzer didn’t give many details on Antetokounmpo, beyond saying he was getting better.
“He did court work, so he’s making progress and we’re pleased he’s making progress,” Budenholzer said.
SEASON SERIES
The Suns won a pair of games that were as close as can be. Their 125-124 home victory on Feb. 10 came when Antetokounmpo scored a season-high 47 points but missed a jumper at the buzzer, and they pulled out a 128-127 victory in Milwaukee on April 19 when Booker knocked down a free throw with 0.3 seconds remaining in overtime.
FLYING INTO THE FINALS
The Bucks haven’t been behind since Game 4 of the East finals, never trailing in either of the last two games. Nine of the 12 wins in the postseason for the NBA’s highest-scoring team have come by double digits.
CROWDER’S CHANCE
With both franchises being absent so long, the Suns’ Jae Crowder is the only player on either side with NBA Finals experience. He played for the Miami Heat when they lost last year to the Lakers.
“I’m very grateful for the opportunity, but I’m looking for a different outcome than I had last time honestly,” the forward said. “That’s all fine that I’ve been here before, but I haven’t won anything.”
FOES TO FRIENDS
Booker will often be matched up against Holiday or Middleton, and after the series ends they will all get on a plane together. All three are set to play in the Olympics for the U.S. team, which will start practicing without them this week before heading to Tokyo.
MINNEAPOLIS — The White Sox lost to the last-place Twins, and maybe much worse, lost catcher Yasmani Grandal with a strained left calf Monday.
Grandal, who had missed the last two and a half games with tightness in his left calf but returned Monday, spun out of the batter’s box after checking his swing in the sixth inning. He hobbled away and went down, lying face down on the grass for several moments before getting up and being helped off the field. Grandal did not put any weight on his left foot and was on crutches after the game.
“You saw his reaction,” manager Toy La Russa said. “Everyone is really concerned about him. He was playing outstanding All-Star type baseball. It’s really uncertain what the diagnosis is going to be.”
Catcher Seby Zavala was en route to Minneapolis from Triple-A Charlotte. Going to the IL seemed probably with five games left before the All-Star break. Zavala is a better option than Yermin Mercedes, La Russa said, because Mercedes needs more game-calling experience.
Grandal left the game against the Tigers Friday after his calf tightened up when he ran down a foul ball near the screen. Monday’s game, an 8-5 loss, was his first game back. La Russa wasn’t sure yet how the two incidents were related.
Dylan Cease (7-4, 4.14 ERA) struck out eight but gave up six hits — including a two-run homer to Max Kepler — over 5 1/3 innings and left trailing 6-1 in the sixth. Jose Abreu hit his team-high 15th homer against lefty Caleb Thielbar in the sixth, and Leury Garcia (single) and Yoan Moncada (triple) each drove in two runs in a four-run seventh cutting the lead to 6-5.
Moncada, with no outs, went on contact and was thrown out trying to score on a ground ball to third baseman Luis Arraez. The contact play was not on, he said.
“I just didn’t read the ground ball,” he said through translator Billy Russo.
Kepler hit his second homer in the eighth against Ryan Burr — the first run against the right-hander in 12 games — Miguel Sano doubled and Andrelton Simmons’ squeeze bunted Sano home to give the Twins their eighth run.
The first-place Sox are 1-3 on a nine-game road trip. And minus one of their best players, the latest in a rash of injuries this season.
“We all know what he can do,” Cease said. “We’re not going to dwell on what we don’t have. Just focus on what we do have and hope he gets back as soon as possible.
Rodon’s road to All-Star Game
Carlos Rodon called the honor of being named an All-Star for the first time “special.”
“I’ve been through a lot,” said the former No. 3 overall draft choice who has bounced back from multiple surgeries to have his best season, by far. “Quite a few people who have helped along the way. I could not have done it without my family’s support, my wife, my teammates.”
This and that
La Russa said outfielder Adam Engel will come off the injured list Tuesday or Wednesday. Third baseman Jake Burger, who popped out as a pinch hitter, seems a likely candidate to be returned to Triple-A Charlotte where he would play every day.
*Moncada returned to the lineup after missing the Tigers series with a bruised right hand.
In the deadliest and most violent weekend this year in Chicago, 99 people have been shot over the long Fourth of July weekend, 17 of them killed.
Among the wounded were at least 11 children and two Chicago police supervisors. Five of the kids were shot within nine hours Sunday evening through early Monday.
Both the number of fatal shootings and the number of shootings overall are highs for 2021, according to a Chicago Sun-Times database of shootings. By 5 p.m. Monday, Chicago had recorded 2,000 shootings this year, the Sun-Times’ database shows.
In one of the holiday weekend incidents, a 15-year-old boy was critically hurt in a drive-by shooting Monday evening at 5:50 p.m. when a dark-colored vehicle drove by and someone from inside pulled out a gun and fired shots in the 6600 block of South Langley Avenue in Woodlawn, police said.
About a half-hour earlier, a 48-year-old was arguing with a person in a home about 5:20 p.m. in the 8600 block of South Aberdeen Street when he was shot and killed, police said.
That followed an incident when two people were killed and four wounded, including a 12-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy in Washington Park on the South Side.
That happened around the same time that a 6-year-old girl and a woman were shot in West Pullman and about four hours after an 11-year-old boy and a man were shot in Brainerd on the South Side. And late Sunday afternoon, a 5-year-old girl was shot in a leg, also in West Pullman.
The Washington Park shooting happened around 1:05 a.m. Monday in the 6100 block of South Wabash Avenue, where a large group of kids and adults gathered outside in a parking lot outside an apartment building to socialize and light off fireworks. Someone inside a car that drove by a group of people there started shooting, according to the police.
A 21-year-old man, shot twice in the head, and a 26-year-old man, shot in the torso, were pronounced dead at the University of Chicago Medical Center, police said.
The 12-year-old was struck in the buttocks and taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, according to the police, who said the 13-year-old was shot in a hand and also taken to Comer to be treated.
A woman, 29, was struck in the elbow and taken to the hospital in good condition, and the sixth victim, a 34-year-old woman, suffered two graze wounds, according to the police.
“I wish that whatever this madness is going on, I wish that it would stop,” said Toni Watkins, who lives in an apartment complex that overlooks the parking lot where the shooting was and has lived in the area for seven years. “Usually, I feel safe around here. But now this has me questioning it because it’s close to home right now.”
Blood stains the parking lot next to an apartment building in the 6100 block of South Wabash Avenue where six people were shot, two of them fatally.Brian Rich / Sun-Times
She said she’s fearful for her own 16-year-old daughter.
“I tell her every day, ‘If you’re going out or going to work, please be careful, and come back home to me. Stay away from those knuckleheads,’ ” Watkins said.
Watkins said she cried when she heard about an earlier shooting in which a 1-month-old baby was shot last week while in a car. She said she’s distraught over kids being shot: “They didn’t ask to be hurt. I just pray and hope that the kids are OK that got hurt.”
The parking lot next to an apartment building in the 6100 block of South Wabash Avenue where six people were shot, two of them killed.Brian Rich / Sun-Times
Several people who live near the parking lot where the shootings happened said groups of 100 or more people often gather there.
A 27-year-old man who said he has lived on that block for 15 years said that “street beefs” mean “everything revolves around retaliation.” But what he said he can’t understand is, “You see a whole bunch of kids, something should click in your head saying not to shoot.”
Shelley Childs recently moved with her 9-year-old son into a lower-level apartment that overlooks the parking lot.
“We’re sitting up there, having a good time, enjoying ourselves, celebrating Fourth of July, and you’re out [there] plotting to kill people,” Childs said of whoever was behind the shootings. “That’s why I’m getting my son and myself away.”
Childs, 25, said she had left the neighborhood Sunday, and, “Something told me don’t come home, it’s so crazy.”
Childs said the violence is “becoming normal.” She said someone was shot and killed about a month ago outside her mother’s house in Hyde Park.
“I saw the body,” her son said.
The 9-year-old said that he tried “to stay calm, think of something else and think of something peaceful.”
“It’s scary,” said his mother, who’s working toward a nursing degree. “I feel like I need to carry a gun, and I don’t want to. But it’s been a trend of kids and women being shot more and more and more around here. And it’s scary. I cannot wait to leave.”
Police commander, sergeant shot on West Side
A Chicago police commander and a sergeant were shot and wounded early Monday after the police disperse a crowd on the West Side.
The commander was struck in the foot, and the sergeant was grazed in the leg, according to police.
Driver fatally shot in Little Village
A man was killed while driving Monday in Little Village on the Southwest Side.
He was driving a gray SUV about 9:15 a.m. in the 3400 block of West 26th Street when someone fired shots at his vehicle, striking him multiple times, police said.
The 34-year-old crashed into a parked car after the shooting, police said. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
1 killed, 1 hurt in Lawndale shooting
A man was killed and another man wounded in a shooting Monday morning in Lawndale on the West Side.
The men were outside just after 2 a.m. in the 1800 block of South Kildare Avenue when they were struck by gunfire, police said.
One man, about 30 years old, suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the body and was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Hospital, according to police. He has not yet been identified. The other man, 62, suffered a gunshot wound to the knee and was taken to the same hospital where his condition was stabilized, police said.
Woman shot to death in Austin
One person was killed and three others wounded in a shooting Sunday night in Austin on the West Side.
About 10:45 p.m., two men and a woman were standing in an alley in the first block of North Menard Avenue when a 33-year-old man began shooting at them, police said.
A woman, 30, suffered a gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police.
A man, 32, was struck multiple times in the body and taken to Stroger Hospital where his condition was stabilized, police said.
Another man, 49, suffered a gunshot wound to the buttocks and was taken to the same hospital where his condition was also stabilized, police said.
A 49-year-old man, who was a concealed carry license holder, witnessed the incident and shot at the offender, according to police.
The offender, a 33-year-old man, was struck in the arm and hip, police said. He was placed into custody and taken to Stroger Hospital in serious condition.
Old Town fatal shooting
Just after 6 a.m. Sunday, a man was walking across the street in the 200 block of West Division Street when someone approached him and the two exchanged words, police said. The other person then began firing several shots towards the man, striking him in the torso, police said.
He was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital where he later died, police said.
Teen killed on Near West Side
A 19-year-old man was killed while riding in a vehicle late Saturday on the Near West Side.
Just after 11 p.m., the teen was riding as a passenger in a vehicle in the 2600 block of West Van Buren Street when someone fired several shots, police said.
He suffered five gunshot wounds throughout his body and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.
Another teen fatally shot in West Pullman
A 17-year-old boy died after he was shot Saturday night at a West Pullman neighborhood home on the Far South Side.
About 9:30 p.m., the teenager was in the basement of the home in the 12000 block of South Yale Avenue with several others when someone opened fire, police said. He was shot twice the head and was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
The teen, identified as Amari Brown, was pronounced dead at 7:50 a.m. Sunday at the hospital, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.
Little Village shooting
A man was killed and two others wounded in a shooting Saturday evening in Little Village on the Southwest Side.
About 7 p.m., a concerned citizen called in a tip about a vehicle driving slowly and bumping against a curb, police said. Responding officers found the man, thought to be about 20 years old, inside the vehicle in the 4200 block of South Cicero Avenue with three gunshot wounds to the torso, police said.
He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. His name hasn’t been released.
Two other men, 32 and 27, were struck in the arm and taken to the same hospital, where they were listed in good condition, police said.
Teen shot to death in Belmont Cragin
A member of the National Guard and aspiring Chicago police officer was found shot to death early Saturday in Belmont Cragin on the Northwest Side.
Chrys Carvajal, of Portage Park, had attended a house party Friday night with his girlfriend and at one point went to get something from his car, his sister Jennifer Ramirez said.
About 1:25 a.m., officers responded to a call of shots fired in the 2200 block of North Lockwood Avenue and found Carvajal, 19, lying unresponsive on the sidewalk with gunshot wounds to the back and abdomen, police said. He was transported to Illinois Masonic Medical Center where he was pronounced dead, according to police.
Carvajal was found early Saturday lying unresponsive on the sidewalk in the 2200 block of North Lockwood Avenue with gunshot wounds to the back and abdomen, police said. He was transported to Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
“We are all very upset and we’re heartbroken,” Ramirez said Sunday. “My mom, she’s really devastated, too. She’s been crying. She has a sore throat because of all the crying, she’s just heartbroken.”
Ramirez said it’s hard to imagine life without her brother, whom she’ll remember as a man with a “big loving heart” who was always willing to help others. She pleaded for anyone with information to come forward.
“We just want people to help. If they saw something, if they know something to help, because if it was their family member, and we saw something, and my family saw something or witnessed something, we would speak up,” she said. “That’s the right thing to do.”
Amid the notoriously violent weekend, the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition on Sunday hosted a Fourth of July cookout and party at the Concordia Place Apartments on the Far South Side.
At the event, Jackson urged people to put down their guns and called on city officials, including Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Police Supt. David Brown, to actively work together to tamp down gun violence.
“The finger-pointing must end,” Jackson said.
He later added that, “We need better and we deserve better.”
Jackson’s comments come two days after City Council members spent six hours interrogating Brown over his plans to curb the latest surge in summertime gun violence.
“We urge people… to put down their guns, stop the violence. Of course, when they see violence — [an] attempt to overthrow our government and they’re treated with kid gloves, it decreases the message: If you pick up a gun and shoot somebody, you’re not walking away,” Jackson said. “We deserve a better America.”
A teenage boy was wounded in a shooting Monday night in Riverdale on the Far South Side.
The 15-year-old was on the front porch of a home about 9 p.m. in the 700 block of East 132nd Street when someone opened fire, Chicago police said.
He suffered a graze wound on the leg and was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital in good condition, police said.
Area Two detectives are investigating.
Hours earlier, another 15-year-old boy was critically hurt in a drive-by shooting in Woodlawn, police said. He was on the sidewalk about 5:50 p.m. when a dark-colored vehicle drove by and someone from inside pulled out a gun and fired shots in the 6600 block of South Langley Avenue.
Two teenagers were shot, one critically, Monday night in Uptown on the South Side.
They were walking about 8:30 p.m. in the 4400 block of North Clarendon Avenue when someone fired shots, Chicago police said. Officers said they were possibly shot by someone inside a passing black car.
A 17-year-old boy was struck in the back, hip and leg, police said. He was taken in critical condition to Weiss Hospital and later transfered to Illinois Masonic Medical Center.
A teen girl, 16, was grazed by a bullet on the ankle and transported to Illinois Masonic Medical Center in good condition, police said.
Two pedestrians walk a crime scene where two people were shot in the 800 block of West Montrose Avenue, in the Uptown neighborhood, Monday, July 5, 2021. | Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-TimesTyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times, Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times
No one is in custody as Area Three detectives investigate.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Reigning NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers says he has spent this offseason focusing on improving himself in every respect, and that goes beyond making sure he’s in top physical shape.
Rodgers skipped Green Bay’s mandatory minicamp last month amid reports that he doesn’t want to return to the Packers. At a Monday news conference to promote his participation in Tuesday’s televised golf event with Tom Brady, Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson, Rodgers was asked how the last few months have gone for him.
Aside from a brief ESPN interview in late May, Rodgers hasn’t commented much about his football future since ESPN reported in the hours before the draft that he doesn’t want to return to the Packers.
“Sometimes, the loudest person in the room is not the smartest person,” Rodgers said. “Sometimes the loudest person in the room is not the person who has all the facts on their side or the truth on their side. Sometimes there’s a lot of wisdom in silence. Sometimes there’s a lot of wisdom in being selective on what you say. This offseason I’ve spent a lot of time working on myself.”
Rodgers then went into detail on just what type of work he had done.
“I’ve focused on in the offseason about how to take care of myself — the total package,” Rodgers said. “Not just my physical self with workouts but my spiritual self with my own mindful practices, my mental health as well. What’s the best way to take care of that? And that’s what I’ve been doing this offseason. That’s why I’ve taken the time I’ve taken and done the things or not done the things that I’ve done. And I’m very thankful for that time.
“I’m very thankful for the opportunity to work on my mental health. I haven’t dealt with bouts of depression or anything that for whatever reason are OK to talk about if you’re talking about mental health. I’ve just been really trying to think about what puts me in the best frame of mind.”
Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst has said he has no plans to trade Rodgers. Packers officials have said they want to keep Rodgers in Green Bay in 2021 and beyond.
Rodgers was promoting “The Match,” a made-for-TV event that pits the Packers quarterback and DeChambeau against Brady and Mickelson.
Have you ever thought hard about the word “amateur”?
Probably not.
For some reason, we in America love the notion of the amateur athlete, the idealized jock doing his or her sport for nothing, carefree and innocent, like a fawn in a meadow, happy just to play the game even if those around him or her make fortunes off that play.
It’s telling that we know the word “amateur” best by its opposite. An amateur is someone who is not a professional.
But who is a professional? Or rather, who isn’t?
Little Johnny gets free hot dogs from Joe’s Deli when his fifth-grade travel baseball team wins? Little Susie gets a free uniform from the town bookstore that sponsors her soccer team?
Pros.
Poorly paid pros, yes.
But you get the point. It’s a fact that adhering to the unenforceable, unrealistic concept of amateurism and the alleged purity that comes with not getting paid for being superior at what you do is behind more than 100 years of conflict and pain caused to athletes under the NCAA’s control.
Now, at last, the U.S. Supreme Court has brought the NCAA’s cartel-like restraint of trade into the first stages of anti-trust breakup. Abruptly, college athletes can dip their toes into the waters of the free market, where their overlords have been splashing about from the get-go. From Florida to Alaska, sea to shining sea, college jocks — male and female, in all sports — are now able to capitalize on their identity, their fame, even their grades!
It’s not just star quarterbacks who will be cashing in. Indeed, the possibilities for smart, scholarly, outgoing, decent, entrepreneurial athletes of every sort to market their likenesses or do endorsements or be part of businesses that use them as paid role models —
well, that gives new meaning to the NCAA’s cynically created term “student-athlete.”
No, it’s not an absolute Wild West free-for-all. Individual states have some say in this. And colleges can set reasonable limits. This is developing capitalism.
But consider that incoming Tennessee State freshman basketball player Hercy Miller just signed a $2 million brand ambassador deal with Web Apps America, a software development company in Los Angeles. Well, yes, it helps that his dad is rap mogul Master P.
I mean, duh. But as the 19-year-old Miller said, “This is like playing in the pros now.”
It’s likely that many lesser athletes and stars alike will now stay in school for all of their eligibility, as long as they can, because of the perks of being that thing known as an “influencer.”
For those who don’t like this upending of the “amateur” world, who enjoyed having unpaid TV and stadium superstars entertaining them without voice or income — well, sorry. Just know this could have been resolved decades ago. It could have been resolved any time the wealthy, white-haired, sanctimonious NCAA field bosses with the figurative bullwhips in hand and the politicians, boosters, sponsors and TV networks in their pockets decided to.
Folks, this is what I wrote in a book called “The Hundred-Yard Lie” published 32 years ago (now re-released as “The College Football Problem”), with in-person observations going back to the early 1970s and document research back to the mid-19th century: “I marvel that amateurism still exists, in the face of the case against it.”
Of course, the Olympics went pro years ago. Don’t forget those college coaches making up to $10 million a year. Why wasn’t an academic scholarship good enough for them?
As essayist William T. Foster wrote in the Atlantic Monthly, “Only childlike innocence or willful blindness need prevent American colleges from seeing that the rules which aim to maintain athletics on what is called an ‘amateur’ basis . . . are worse than useless because, while failing to prevent men from playing for free, they breed deceit and hypocrisy.”
He wrote that in
1915. Back before rap. Before boy bands from Korea, even.
Amateurism is also described as something being done by somebody in an “incompetent or inept” way. Does that describe sports in the Big Ten? In the Pac-12? At Clemson, where quarterback Trevor Lawrence, this year’s No. 1 overall NFL draft pick, came from?
I daydream about what I could have done while playing football for Northwestern many years ago if we’d had these new rules. Maybe a deal with Vienna Beef here in Chicago? Or Nathan’s in New York? I do love hot dogs. That’s on my permanent record. What a spokesman I could have been! Joey Chestnut, back off!
So, amateurism, bye-bye. It’s been said before: Better late than never.
It caught many revelers off-guard on the way to their first proper Independence Day festivities in two years, but the higher holiday parking rate has been in place since 2018, according to Chicago Park District spokeswoman Michele Lemons.
“Similar to other parking lots across the city, the Chicago Park District imposes a holiday rate along the lakefront over the Fourth of July weekend,” Lemons said in an email. “The $30 flat parking rate is consistent at all lakefront locations.”
But rates were jacked up in at least one other lot that’s nowhere near the lake: Big Marsh Park on the Far South Side, about five miles removed from the closest beach.
Lemons didn’t immediately respond to a question about the inland pricing elevation, or what weekends will be $30 affairs in the future.
Still, the flat rate likely ended up as a discount for those who spent a full day at a downtown beach. Navy Pier charges $53 for a 24-hour stay, for example.
In the deadliest and most violent weekend this year in Chicago, 99 people have been shot over the long Fourth of July weekend, 17 of them killed.
Among the wounded were at least eight children and teenagers and two Chicago police supervisors. Five of the kids were shot within nine hours Sunday evening through early Monday.
Both the number of fatal shootings and the number of shootings overall are highs for 2021, according to a Chicago Sun-Times database of shootings. By 5 p.m. Monday, Chicago had recorded 2,000 shootings this year, the Sun-Times’ database shows.
In one of the holiday weekend incidents, a 15-year-old boy was critically hurt in a drive-by shooting Monday evening at 5:50 p.m. when a dark-colored vehicle drove by and someone from inside pulled out a gun and fired shots in the 6600 block of South Langley Avenue in Woodlawn, police said.
About a half-hour earlier, a 48-year-old was arguing with a person in a home about 5:20 p.m. in the 8600 block of South Aberdeen Street when he was shot and killed, police said.
That followed an incident when two people were killed and four wounded, including a 12-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy in Washington Park on the South Side.
That happened around the same time that a 6-year-old girl and a woman were shot in West Pullman and about four hours after an 11-year-old boy and a man were shot in Brainerd on the South Side. And late Sunday afternoon, a 5-year-old girl was shot in a leg, also in West Pullman.
The Washington Park shooting happened around 1:05 a.m. Monday in the 6100 block of South Wabash Avenue, where a large group of kids and adults gathered outside in a parking lot outside an apartment building to socialize and light off fireworks. Someone inside a car that drove by a group of people there started shooting, according to the police.
A 21-year-old man, shot twice in the head, and a 26-year-old man, shot in the torso, were pronounced dead at the University of Chicago Medical Center, police said.
The 12-year-old was struck in the buttocks and taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, according to the police, who said the 13-year-old was shot in a hand and also taken to Comer to be treated.
A woman, 29, was struck in the elbow and taken to the hospital in good condition, and the sixth victim, a 34-year-old woman, suffered two graze wounds, according to the police.
“I wish that whatever this madness is going on, I wish that it would stop,” said Toni Watkins, who lives in an apartment complex that overlooks the parking lot where the shooting was and has lived in the area for seven years. “Usually, I feel safe around here. But now this has me questioning it because it’s close to home right now.”
Blood stains the parking lot next to an apartment building in the 6100 block of South Wabash Avenue where six people were shot, two of them fatally.Brian Rich / Sun-Times
She said she’s fearful for her own 16-year-old daughter.
“I tell her every day, ‘If you’re going out or going to work, please be careful, and come back home to me. Stay away from those knuckleheads,’ ” Watkins said.
Watkins said she cried when she heard about an earlier shooting in which a 1-month-old baby was shot last week while in a car. She said she’s distraught over kids being shot: “They didn’t ask to be hurt. I just pray and hope that the kids are OK that got hurt.”
The parking lot next to an apartment building in the 6100 block of South Wabash Avenue where six people were shot, two of them killed.Brian Rich / Sun-Times
Several people who live near the parking lot where the shootings happened said groups of 100 or more people often gather there.
A 27-year-old man who said he has lived on that block for 15 years said that “street beefs” mean “everything revolves around retaliation.” But what he said he can’t understand is, “You see a whole bunch of kids, something should click in your head saying not to shoot.”
Shelley Childs recently moved with her 9-year-old son into a lower-level apartment that overlooks the parking lot.
“We’re sitting up there, having a good time, enjoying ourselves, celebrating Fourth of July, and you’re out [there] plotting to kill people,” Childs said of whoever was behind the shootings. “That’s why I’m getting my son and myself away.”
Childs, 25, said she had left the neighborhood Sunday, and, “Something told me don’t come home, it’s so crazy.”
Childs said the violence is “becoming normal.” She said someone was shot and killed about a month ago outside her mother’s house in Hyde Park.
“I saw the body,” her son said.
The 9-year-old said that he tried “to stay calm, think of something else and think of something peaceful.”
“It’s scary,” said his mother, who’s working toward a nursing degree. “I feel like I need to carry a gun, and I don’t want to. But it’s been a trend of kids and women being shot more and more and more around here. And it’s scary. I cannot wait to leave.”
Police commander, sergeant shot on West Side
A Chicago police commander and a sergeant were shot and wounded early Monday after the police disperse a crowd on the West Side.
The commander was struck in the foot, and the sergeant was grazed in the leg, according to police.
Driver fatally shot in Little Village
A man was killed while driving Monday in Little Village on the Southwest Side.
He was driving a gray SUV about 9:15 a.m. in the 3400 block of West 26th Street when someone fired shots at his vehicle, striking him multiple times, police said.
The 34-year-old crashed into a parked car after the shooting, police said. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
1 killed, 1 hurt in Lawndale shooting
A man was killed and another man wounded in a shooting Monday morning in Lawndale on the West Side.
The men were outside just after 2 a.m. in the 1800 block of South Kildare Avenue when they were struck by gunfire, police said.
One man, about 30 years old, suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the body and was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Hospital, according to police. He has not yet been identified. The other man, 62, suffered a gunshot wound to the knee and was taken to the same hospital where his condition was stabilized, police said.
Woman shot to death in Austin
One person was killed and three others wounded in a shooting Sunday night in Austin on the West Side.
About 10:45 p.m., two men and a woman were standing in an alley in the first block of North Menard Avenue when a 33-year-old man began shooting at them, police said.
A woman, 30, suffered a gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police.
A man, 32, was struck multiple times in the body and taken to Stroger Hospital where his condition was stabilized, police said.
Another man, 49, suffered a gunshot wound to the buttocks and was taken to the same hospital where his condition was also stabilized, police said.
A 49-year-old man, who was a concealed carry license holder, witnessed the incident and shot at the offender, according to police.
The offender, a 33-year-old man, was struck in the arm and hip, police said. He was placed into custody and taken to Stroger Hospital in serious condition.
Old Town fatal shooting
Just after 6 a.m. Sunday, a man was walking across the street in the 200 block of West Division Street when someone approached him and the two exchanged words, police said. The other person then began firing several shots towards the man, striking him in the torso, police said.
He was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital where he later died, police said.
Teen killed on Near West Side
A 19-year-old man was killed while riding in a vehicle late Saturday on the Near West Side.
Just after 11 p.m., the teen was riding as a passenger in a vehicle in the 2600 block of West Van Buren Street when someone fired several shots, police said.
He suffered five gunshot wounds throughout his body and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.
Another teen fatally shot in West Pullman
A 17-year-old boy died after he was shot Saturday night at a West Pullman neighborhood home on the Far South Side.
About 9:30 p.m., the teenager was in the basement of the home in the 12000 block of South Yale Avenue with several others when someone opened fire, police said. He was shot twice the head and was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
The teen, identified as Amari Brown, was pronounced dead at 7:50 a.m. Sunday at the hospital, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.
Little Village shooting
A man was killed and two others wounded in a shooting Saturday evening in Little Village on the Southwest Side.
About 7 p.m., a concerned citizen called in a tip about a vehicle driving slowly and bumping against a curb, police said. Responding officers found the man, thought to be about 20 years old, inside the vehicle in the 4200 block of South Cicero Avenue with three gunshot wounds to the torso, police said.
He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. His name hasn’t been released.
Two other men, 32 and 27, were struck in the arm and taken to the same hospital, where they were listed in good condition, police said.
Teen shot to death in Belmont Cragin
A member of the National Guard and aspiring Chicago police officer was found shot to death early Saturday in Belmont Cragin on the Northwest Side.
Chrys Carvajal, of Portage Park, had attended a house party Friday night with his girlfriend and at one point went to get something from his car, his sister Jennifer Ramirez said.
About 1:25 a.m., officers responded to a call of shots fired in the 2200 block of North Lockwood Avenue and found Carvajal, 19, lying unresponsive on the sidewalk with gunshot wounds to the back and abdomen, police said. He was transported to Illinois Masonic Medical Center where he was pronounced dead, according to police.
Carvajal was found early Saturday lying unresponsive on the sidewalk in the 2200 block of North Lockwood Avenue with gunshot wounds to the back and abdomen, police said. He was transported to Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
“We are all very upset and we’re heartbroken,” Ramirez said Sunday. “My mom, she’s really devastated, too. She’s been crying. She has a sore throat because of all the crying, she’s just heartbroken.”
Ramirez said it’s hard to imagine life without her brother, whom she’ll remember as a man with a “big loving heart” who was always willing to help others. She pleaded for anyone with information to come forward.
“We just want people to help. If they saw something, if they know something to help, because if it was their family member, and we saw something, and my family saw something or witnessed something, we would speak up,” she said. “That’s the right thing to do.”
Amid the notoriously violent weekend, the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition on Sunday hosted a Fourth of July cookout and party at the Concordia Place Apartments on the Far South Side.
At the event, Jackson urged people to put down their guns and called on city officials, including Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Police Supt. David Brown, to actively work together to tamp down gun violence.
“The finger-pointing must end,” Jackson said.
He later added that, “We need better and we deserve better.”
Jackson’s comments come two days after City Council members spent six hours interrogating Brown over his plans to curb the latest surge in summertime gun violence.
“We urge people… to put down their guns, stop the violence. Of course, when they see violence — [an] attempt to overthrow our government and they’re treated with kid gloves, it decreases the message: If you pick up a gun and shoot somebody, you’re not walking away,” Jackson said. “We deserve a better America.”
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