LOGAN SQUARE — Police are increasing their patrols in Logan Square after three people were shot in a pocket of the neighborhood Wednesday, one fatally.
Officers from the Police Department’s mobile patrol unit are being deployed to the neighborhood following the string of shootings, 14th Police District Sgt. Michael Edens said at a community policing meeting Thursday. The mobile patrol unit is used to respond to violence hot spots.
Police think two of the three shootings — the ones that happened near Funston Elementary School, 2010 N. Central Park Ave. — are linked to a gang war in the area, Edens said. The third shooting, which happened several hours earlier on Drake Avenue, appears to be unrelated, the officer said.
RELATED: Logan Square Shootings Could Be Linked To Ongoing Gang Conflict, Police Say
Detectives continue to investigate the shootings as patrolmen saturate the area, said 25th Police District Sgt. Luis Gonzalez, who also spoke about the shootings at a separate community policing meeting Thursday.
Credit: Mina Bloom/Block Club ChicagoThe shootings rocked a typically quiet area of Logan Square. For hours, the neighborhood was awash with flashing blue police lights as helicopters circled overhead.
The first shooting happened about 2 a.m. Wednesday in the 1900 block of North Drake Avenue, police said.
A man, 32, was walking when someone walked up to him and fired shots, police said. The man was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital with gunshot wounds in his stomach and hand. He was initially listed in fair condition, police said.
Edens said detectives think this shooting stemmed from a domestic dispute, but the investigation is ongoing.
Later in the day, the area was hit with another burst of gunfire — this time, near Funston Elementary School.
About 1:45 p.m., a man was on the sidewalk in the 2100 block of North Central Park Avenue when someone in a dark-colored car pulled up and someone got out and fired shots, hitting the man in his head and chest, police said. The man was pronounced dead on the scene.
The man’s identity and age weren’t immediately available.
Less than three hours later, a man was shot in the 3600 block of West Armitage Avenue, across from Funston. Similar to the Central Park Avenue shooting, people in a car pulled up and shot a man on the sidewalk, police said.
The man was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was treated for “multiple gunshot wounds to the body,” police said. No more information was immediately available on his age or condition.
Funston Elementary was put on lockdown because of the shootings, Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) said.
Detectives think both shootings are tied to a gang war between the Imperial Gangsters and the Spanish Cobras, Edens said. The 14th District’s tactical team is focusing its efforts on the western end of the district after the flare-up, he said.
Ramirez-Rosa, who represents the area where the Central Park Avenue shooting occurred, urged anyone with information about the “concerning and “frightening incidents” to come forward.
“As a community, it’s important that we keep looking out for one another,” Ramirez-Rosa said in a written message.
Shootings are on the rise in the 14th Police District this year, according to police data. The district, which covers most of Logan Square, has seen an 8.5 percent increase in shootings over last year, from 47 to 51. But murders have dropped about 27 percent, from 15 to 11, according to the statistics.
The opposite is true for the 25th Police District, which includes a western portion of Logan Square. This year, murders in the district have risen a whopping 76 percent over last year, from 17 to 30, police statistics show. Shootings have dropped 22 percent, from 112 to 87.
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