As 2012 comes to a close, Chicago has reached a terrible milestone: 500 homicides in the city for the entire year.
Nathaniel T. Jackson was killed Thursday (Dec. 27), becoming the 500th person to die in the city.
The victim was gunned down on Chicago's west side at around 9p.m. Jackson was standing outside of a store when someone walked up and shot him in the head. He was taken to Stroger Hospital where he died.
“He was a lot of fun, very good at imitating people,” his cousin Gaves Bates told the Chicago Tribune. “He just had so much fun all the time. And we all grew up together in the same house.”
Bates said that Jackson, 40, was staying with a friend of the family after getting out of prison in August. “The last time he was out, someone had shot him several times in the back,” she added. “He was a fighter, he was a survivor.”
Residents held a “peace dinner” Thursday to discuss ideas to bring an end to the violence, with Alderman Anthony Beale placing the blame on Police Superintend Garry McCarty. “His philosophy is not working. We need to put resources where the problems are, and then you will see crime drop across the city.”
While community leaders have pledged to try and curb the violence, Chicago was unable to break itself of such a pattern. The last time the city surpassed 500 homicides was in 2008, when the number was at 512.
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Chicago was hit hard by gun violence in 2012, and it turns out the crimes occurred in specific places. A report in the New York Times, details just who (typically Black men) tend to be the shooting victims in the nation's third largest city, and where the shootings occur.
As previously reported, 40-year-old Nathaniel T. Jackson became the Windy City's 500th homicide for 2012. However the final death toll stopped at 506 before the start of 2013.
Many of the shootings have occurred on the city's West and South sides. “It's two different Chicagos,” noted Rev. Corey B. Brooks Sr., who led the service for James Holman, shot to death last month. At Holman's funeral another victim, 21-year-old Sherman Miller, was shot and killed in front of the church where the ceremony was being held. The location, St. Columbanus Catholic Church, is the same place where President Barack Obama fed the homeless after his first election win, in 2008.
While police have classified many of the shootings as being gang-related, Brooks pointed to the racial divide in the city. “If something like that had happened at the big cathedral in downtown Chicago, or up north at a predominately white church, it would still be on the news right now, it would be such a major thing going on.”
Violence at funerals is nothing new to Chicago. During the funeral held for up-and-coming rapper Joseph “Lil JoJo” Coleman, crowds got out of hand, nearly knocking over the casket holding the teen's body. Months later aspiring rapper, Joshua Davis, was killed allegedly for wearing a sweatshirt honoring Coleman.
Over 80 percent of the shootings in Chicago occurred in the 23rd police district, while nearby areas like the business district reported no killing for the entire year. “I don't go out at night,” said Jess Martinez who owns a business on the South Side. Martinez was robbed a few years ago and recalled having a gun put to his head.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has stressed the importance of unity in the city, calling for all residents to see the violence as an epidemic regardless of where they reside. “ A child shot is a child of the City of Chicago,” he said during an interview. “Don't anybody think that it's ‘over there.' It's a tear on this city.”
The exact explanation behind the shooting sprees may not ever be pinpointed, but in addition to gangs, hot weather over the summer months earned some of the blame.
No arrests have been made in the deaths of Holman or Miller.
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