Another Bloody Memorial Day Weekend in Chicago

UPDATED 5/29/2012 15:50: Eleven dead and at least 43 others were wounded in weekend shootings across the city since Friday, including a 7-year-old girl shot while playing in front of her South Side home. Among the dead are:

 

• Malcolm Dowdy, 33, of the 9600 block of South Euclid Avenue, was shot in the head about 10 p.m. Monday while standing with a large group in the 1700 block of East 68th Street, police said. He was pronounced dead at Jackson Park Hospital at 10:25 p.m. A 22-year-old man was also wounded in that shooting.
• Marley Collins, 19, was shot in the 1500 block of South Spaulding Avenue at 5:36 p.m. Monday. Collins, of the 5000 block of West 18th in Cicero, was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Hospital. 
• An unidentified woman was found shot about 5:30 a.m. Monday in an alley in the 3000 block of South Kostner Avenue. A person walking a dog found the woman bleeding from the head and called emergency crews, who took her to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, where she died, police said. 
• Robert McNear, 35, of the 7100 block of South Eberhart Avenue, was dead on the scene at 1:20 a.m. Monday in the 5000 block of South St. Lawrence Avenue, according to the medical examiner's office. 
• Marcus Morgan, 27, died at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County at 3:20 p.m. Sunday after he was shot in head Friday night in the 5300 block of South Justine Street, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office. 
• Jaleel Beasley, 19, was shot in the head and stomach in the 2400 block of West Roosevelt Road, police said. He was pronounced dead at 2:34 a.m. Sunday at Mount Sinai Hospital, the medical examiner's office said. 
• Jeffrey Triplett, 17, was shot about 2:15 a.m. Saturday in the 1500 block of Millard Avenue. Triplett was shot in the lower back and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead, authorities said. Another 17-year-old boy was wounded in the shooting and was listed in critical condition at Mount Sinai Hospital. 
• Jaylin Johnson, 18, shot in the head in the 1100 block of South Normal Avenue about 10:40 p.m. Saturday. He and a 21-year-old man were wounded while having a conversation on the sidewalk. Johnson, of the 11000 block of South Emerald died early Monday at Christ Hospital while the older man was seriously wounded. 
• Avelino Sanchez, 68, and Lori Inman, 49, who were found dead with shotgun wounds to their chests at their apartment in the 6500 block of South Kenwood Avenue Friday night, authorities said. According to court information, their names and ages were actually Mario Tempana-Vena, 69, and Lorrie Heidrick, 48, and that the other names -- originally given by authorities -- were aliases. A third roommate -- 52-year-old Michael Myrieckes -- is accused of shooting Sanchez and Inman during what prosecutors say was a dispute over who could stay at their Woodlawn home.

The number of dead continues to rise in Chicago, with little or no chance of slowing with the summer months rapidly approaching. Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Superintendant Garry McCarthy are expected to announce two new crime fighting strategies today. According to WLS Am 890 News Radio the strategy of the preventing more murders and gang on gang violence is this.

1. Creation of a new ballistics unit, because it takes six months to get infomation back on ballistic matches from the crime lab. Our question is where will the money come from? Staff and equipment cost money. Isn't Chicago in a budget crisis. These operations are extremely expensive.
2. Putting gang intelligence on Chicago's 59 Street Gangs and the 625 known gang factions ino the hands of beat Officer. They talk about putting real-time gang intelligence into the hands of the beat officers. 
3. Gang Audits in every district that establish a wealth of information on gang factions, turf and assocaitions. This is basic policing. How can you attack a problem without undestanding it scope, nature and degree of its involvement.
4. Allowing beat Officers to access information via their data terminals in squad cars. These really looks to be a recycle of point number two. (We thought they could do this, otherwise why have the computers)
5. Make use of gang intervention teams from Operation Cease Fire. Which we suggested a few weeks back.

Much of this is recycled from previous press conferences, where the "wraparound" strategy was deployed just a month ago.