Natalia Chi
CHICAGO – Chicago police said a 19-year-old woman was shot dead Monday night inside Willie White Park on the city’s Far North Side. She is the third person shot in West Howard’s 1600 block since November.
According to a CPD media statement, the woman was with a group of several people when someone opened fire at around 10:18 pm. She was taken to St. Francis Hospital for treatment of gunshot wounds to her chest and abdomen.
The victim, a student at Northwestern University, was walking in the park with his friend Aldo at the time of the shooting. Maria Hadden, 49, said in a Facebook post. Hadden said they were not the intended targets.
Police did not release information about the suspect. Officers said they found about a dozen shell casings in the park.
The woman was the 14th person shot in Rogers Park this year, and one of the 12 victims at this time last year was ruled in self-defense. In one of this year’s cases, the coroner’s verdict is still pending. According to city records, Rogers Park has 10 shooting victims as of this date in 2021.
Two other shootings have been reported in the 1600 block of West Howard since late last year.
On November 9, a 48-year-old man was shot in the leg while standing on the sidewalk near Willie White Park. Police said the shooter approached the victim, opened fire, and fled the scene. The first indications from the scene were that the victim knew the shooter.
On February 13, a 31-year-old man was shot in a car across the street from a park. Police said at the time that the victim was walking, but the attackers got into a dark vehicle and opened fire from the vehicle, hitting the man in the left calf.
Recent shootings in the neighborhood include:
- On April 13, a 28-year-old man was seriously injured by a gunman in Loyola Park. Police said a dark sedan drove into a park parking lot in Sheridan and Tooey and someone opened fire on the victim from the car.
- Also on April 13, a 33-year-old man was shot in the leg at Block 1400 in West Arthur when a man driving by opened fire.
- On April 6, a 33-year-old man was shot dead at Block 7600 in North Sheridan. Police said the man was shot while walking, but witnesses said he was hiding behind a trash can when he was shot by a woman.
- On March 29, a 20-year-old woman suffered a scrape on her back while walking up the stairs of her 1,300 block West Columbia apartment.
- On March 26, a 23-year-old man was shot at Block 1500 of West Jonquil Terrace.
- On March 25, at Block 7300 in North Greenview, a 57-year-old man was shot while sitting in his car.
- Quentin Pruett, 45, of Madison, Wisconsin, was shot dead on March 21 during a home invasion in Block 7600 in North Sheridan. His family believes he was never the intended target.
- On March 3, a 37-year-old man was found shot dead in his apartment block 7,500 in North Damen. Police initially detained the woman inside the apartment, but she was later released. Investigators did not find a murder weapon at the scene, and the coroner’s office has not determined the man’s cause or cause of death.
shooting victim Rogers Park as of May 23rd of each year:
2010 — 5 years
2011 — 7 years
2012 — 2015
2013 — 7 years
2014 — 17
2015 — 12
2016 — 11
2017 — 4 years
2018 — September
2019 — 1
2020 — 6
2021 — 10 years
2022 — 12 years
2023 — 14* — includes one case pending at the coroner’s office.
