Chicago 303

By Annie Sweeney, Jeremy Gorner and Joe Germuska

The bullets flew in neighborhoods from Roseland to Rogers Park, hitting victims ranging in age from 72 to just 1. The overwhelming majority of them were young men. The bullets nicked eyebrows and ankles. They also pierced whole communities, such as historic Woodlawn.

More than 300 people were shot in Chicago last month. At least 33 of them have died.

Some victims made headlines, like 13-year-old Robert Freeman Jr., who was fatally shot on his block while hanging out with friends. The city paused when two Chicago police officers — Michael Bailey and Thor Soderberg — were gunned down in uniform within weeks of each other.

But many more victims of shootings in July — historically among the city's most dangerous months — suffered unnoticed by the rest of the city.

Crime has been holding steady in Chicago in recent years. Through July, there have been 1,089 shootings in the city, a 2.4 percent decrease over last year. This July, police counted 221 shooting incidents, compared with 229 in July 2009. A review of seven years worth of shootings showed similar numbers.

In other words, this was a typical July.

The Chicago Police Department declined to provide the number of shooting victims in July or comment about the month's shooting tally. But a Tribune analysis of reported shootings, based on logs kept by police and reporting by the Tribune, counted 303 people who were injured in shootings last month.

The Tribune's analysis showed that shootings occurred in predictable places — the Far South Side and West Side, for instance, where violence has been a pervasive problem for decades. It also showed how a bullet — even one that doesn't kill — pierced a path of destruction in victims, families and the neighborhoods where they live.

Tribune reporter Cynthia Dizikes contributed to this report.

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Mayor Daley proves that Gun Control Works. I don't have the time or the motivation to do the research, but I'm sure I'd find comparable statistics from New York City and Washington D.C., two other large No Gun cities, just off the top of my mind. I'd like to compare these three with someplace like Dallas where the burglar or mugger does NOT have the Mayor's guarantee that his chosen victim is unarmed. Around Dallas, larceny can be a capital offense, so a lot of robbers choose to pursue other occupations.

By Becky Schlikerman

An off-duty Chicago police officer shot and killed a man who broke into his South Side home Friday morning, police said. The intruder, who police said was armed, had not been identified as of late Friday.

The officer thought he heard someone breaking into his home in the Garfield Ridge neighborhood and called 911 around 8:45 a.m., then he was confronted by an intruder "with something in his hand," said Wentworth Area Deputy Chief of Patrol Eddie Welch.

The officer, who police did not identify, fired his service weapon several times, killing the intruder, Welch said. The man had gotten into the home in the 5500 block of South Normandy Avenue by kicking in the basement door, Welch said.

A weapon belonging to the intruder was found at the scene, Welch said.

Neighbors watched as police cordoned off the officer's home. They said five or six police officers live on the block and expressed shock that anyone would break into a cop's house.

"I feel safe because we are surrounded by police," said neighbor Delia Garcia, 43.

Neighbors backed the off-duty officer's actions.

"They invaded his home, he did what he had to do," said Linda Gonzalez, 46.

Tribune reporter Caroline Kyungae Smith contributed to this report.

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Okay, everyone agrees it was a righteous shooting for the cop, and the burglar just picked the wrong house to rob. The story would have ended completely different if the policeman had been a civilian and not allowed to own a gun for self-defense. The burglar would have killed him, taken whatever valuables he wanted and disappeared.