‘I wish I could say it was something new:’ Police, activists step in to assist in Chicago’s latest mass shooting

CHICAGO – At a corner in North Lawndale, the familiar tune of an ice cream truck rang out as it drove past crowds of community leaders and advocates who wanted to create a welcoming atmosphere for those in the neighborhood affected by gun violence looking for resources.

The gathering at Deliverance Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith was just a few blocks away from where a 21-year-old woman was fatally shot Sunday morning. The mass shooting, which occurred at a birthday party in the 1500 block of South Keeler Avenue, left another eight people, seven of them women, wounded by gunfire.

“So after an event like this, you need to go back to the event space where that tragedy happened and go back to the block, go to the park and make it an atmosphere where the local people on the block can feel like this is a place of safety and comfort,” said Corniki Bornds, founder of Help Understanding Grief.

The North Lawndale resident lost her teen son to gun violence six years ago and started her organization to provide support for other mothers who have lost loved ones. She said the aftermath of gun violence is just as important to address as the initial trauma.

Organizers from groups such as UCAN, the Helen and Joe Foundation and the Lawndale Christian Legal Center were available to residents in the neighborhood, with tables set up in the church for those looking for help.

People greeted each other with hugs and pats on the back on the sidewalk outside the church.

Organizers also knocked on doors on the block to provide support, stopping to chat with people sitting on their porch or walking dogs.

“Because somebody is in their house right now that needs the help and the resources that are here, but they’re scared to come to this type of setting,” Bornds said.

It’s about meeting people where they’re at, she said.

Mark Atkins, 50, lives a few blocks from where Sunday’s shooting took place. He said the recent violence isn’t surprising at all.

“I wish I could say it was something new, but it’s not new. It’s pretty common,” Atkins said.

Atkins heard about the support event because he attends Deliverance Temple Church, but he thinks it’s something more people in the neighborhood need to know about.

“The sad part is that there’s more of the programs here than the actual neighborhood,” he said. Events like the one at the church are really good for the community and should be better publicized, he said.

Ald. Monique Scott, whose 24th Ward includes North Lawndale, said tragedies such as this are a reminder that the violence needs to end.

“I mean, I don’t know what it’s going to take. I don’t know what kind of help we can get but it is a call on parents. It’s a call on aunts, grandmothers, grandfathers, uncles, cousins, friends,” Scott said. “We got to love on each other a little bit more.”

Scott hasn’t been in direct contact with the victims’ families but said most didn’t live in the community. Nonetheless, she said it’s an issue that affects everyone in the neighborhood.

The identity of the woman killed was not released as of Monday afternoon.

Aileen Robinson, director of CPD’s crime victim services, said her office picks up the baton after officers finish their initial work in a traumatic incident. Relationship- and trust-building is paramount, she said.

“By bringing in immediate crisis services afterward, we’re just kind of picking up where things left off and building the relationship,” Robinson said Monday. “The hope is that those relationships and attending to what that victim needs first, that they will also be willing to work with us if we have questions and things that might be of evidentiary value to a case. It’s not necessary and we make that clear. Our sole focus is starting where that victim’s at, making sure we help them on the path from that trauma, and then, if we can work together moving forward – whether that’s tomorrow, a week or a year – that’s our goal.”

“When acts of violence occur, it’s more than just the direct victims and their families who are affected,” interim CPD Superintendent Fred Waller said during a news conference Monday. “This violence creates a ripple effect that can touch an entire community.”

“My experience is that when we extend our hand and show that we’re trying to support these victims, it gives us a lot of equity in the community, and that’s what we’re trying to do,” Waller added. “We want to show these people that we care about them just as much as if they lived on the Gold Coast.”a

Women are far less likely to be victims of gun violence than men, city data show. Over the last decade, women have accounted for 11% of the city’s homicide victims and 13% of all nonfatal shooting victims.

The shooting occurred in the Ogden District, which covers the North Lawndale and Little Village neighborhoods. City records show that 34 people have been killed and another 144 wounded by gunfire within the boundaries of Beat 1012 – where Sunday’s shooting occurred – over the last decade.

The Ogden District has long been one of the most violent in the city, a byproduct of racist policies such as redlining and contract home sales that further solidified racial segregation among the city’s neighborhoods during and after the Great Migration.