Six killed in another surge of violence in Chicago

Aamer Madhani | USA TODAY

CHICAGO — Six people were killed and eight others wounded since Monday morning in the latest spate of bloody violence in the nation’s third-largest city.

The flurry of gun violence comes as Chicago has experienced a 21% surge in homicides and a 20% increase in non-fatal shooting incidents so far in 2015, according to Chicago Police Department data. The latest violence all occurred on the city's South and West sides, which historically have endured the vast majority violence in the city.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel expressed outrage on Tuesday, blaming the rise in violence on there being too many guns on the streets of Chicago and weak gun laws.

"It is time that our criminal justice system and the laws that relate to access to guns and the penalties for using them (in crimes) reflect the values of the people of the city of Chicago," Emanuel said.

Deputy Chief Eugene Roy said that gunfire killed two women and wounded three others – including an 11-month old boy – as they returned from a family outing around 7:15 p.m. on Monday in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. A car pulled up on the family as they were getting out of their own vehicle, and one or more suspects opened fire on the family. Police did not know why the family was targeted. The women who were fatally shot, 24-year-old Patricia Chew and 46-year-old Lolita Wells, were the boy’s mother and grandmother.

“In a second, two generations of that child’s family were wiped out,” Roy told reporters.

A police officer who arrived on the scene rushed the boy to a nearby hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. Two men, both 25, also suffered non life-threatening injuries.

About five hours later and less than three miles away, a woman and two men were killed and two others were wounded in a shooting early Tuesday in the Fuller Park neighborhood on the city’s South Side. The shooting happened near a playground when two male gunmen opened fire from a nearby alley. The woman, identified by family as 22-year-old Ayanna Northern, was shot in the chest and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The two men killed in the incident, who have not yet been identified, were both shot in the head and were pronounced dead at nearby hospitals. A 24-year-old woman and 36-year-old man were also wounded in the incident but were expected to survive, police said.

On Monday morning, an 18-year-old man was fatally shot on the city’s West Side. The man, who has yet to be identified, was shot several times in the arms and chest, according to police. No arrests were made in that incident.

There was also a spate of non-fatal shooting incidents in the city since late Monday.

A 2-year-old boy who was grazed by a bullet is in good condition at the hospital after someone accidentally discharged a gun in his home early Tuesday morning. Police were questioning a male relative of the boy’s about the shooting, the Tribune reports. A 26-year-old man was in critical condition after being shot late Monday evening as he rode a bicycle in the West Englewood neighborhood on the South Side.

In a separate incident incident in the Washington Park neighborhood, a 23-year-old man was shot in the left shoulder as he stood outside in a drive-by shooting, according to police.

Follow USA TODAY Chicago correspondent Aamer Madhani on Twitter: @AamerISmad