BLM, Obama, Al, Jesse, Hillary, still nowhere in sight in south Chicago. Black lives really matter to those people, don't they. Those tough gun control laws are really working well also. Chicago is a testament to Liberal government.

Quote:Dominice Hallom was an 18-year-old living on Chicago's Far South Side when the Chicago Tribune featured him in a story in 2008 after he had been shot and wounded in two separate incidents three months apart.

After the second shooting, the former standout point guard at Corliss High School had recalled how he had played dead, twitching his prone body to convince the masked gunman that the bullets were continuing to strike him after the first shots hit him in the back and right calf.

He had professed to have learned his lesson, telling the Tribune, "It's easy to get into trouble, it's hard to get out of it."

Just days after the story ran in June 2008, though, Hallom was shot again. Then he was shot again in August 2010 and yet again in August 2015, surviving each time, according to Chicago police

But his luck finally ran out over the weekend. For the sixth time in less than a decade, Hallom, now 27, was shot, but this time he died of his wounds. Police identified him as a documented gang member and said he was fatally shot about 2 p.m. Saturday as he sat in a parked vehicle in the Southwest Side's Chicago Lawn neighborhood.

With the weekend toll of eight killed and 35 wounded, Chicago surpassed another dreaded milestone in a year that has seen the worst violence in two decades. As of early Monday, at least 3,028 people had been shot, more than the 2,980 for all of 2015, according to data collected by the Tribune. Last week, Chicago topped 500 homicides after tallying 481 all of last year, according to the Tribune data.

Chart: Chicago shootings in 2016 and 2015
Tribune Graphics
Diane Latiker, who heads the anti-violence organization Kids Off The Block, took Hallom's killing hard. Her daughter had once dated him, and Latiker had tried to steer Hallom in the right direction over the years. She recalled he once even moved to Texas to escape the violence and had dreamed of becoming a lawyer to help others.

On Monday, after learning about Hallom's death on Facebook, Latiker spoke with a sullen look on her face, saying she was consumed by guilt.

"My feeling personally is that I failed him," she said in the living room of her Far South Side residence. "I've got to realize that I can't lay that all at my feet, but it hurts so bad to know he doesn't have a chance."

"That gun gives young people power, and most of them think that's the only power that they have, so the prize is to get a gun to show I got the power."

Nearly a third of the more than 3,000 shootings took place in just three police districts on the West Side, the Tribune found. Harrison ranked the worst among the city's 22 districts with 423 people shot, compared with 237 at this point last year, according to Tribune data collected from staff reporting and police reports. In two other West Side districts, shootings more than doubled — 265 people were shot in Austin, up from 112, while Ogden saw 232 people shot, compared with 106.

On the South Side, the Englewood police district, long troubled by gun violence, had the worst violence, with 324 people shot so far this year, up from 246 a year earlier.

Three districts saw slight drops in shootings, all of them on the North and Northwest sides: Jefferson Park, from 14 to 12; Lincoln, 17 to 14; and Rogers Park, 37 to 34.

2016 shootings by police district
Shootings in Chicago have been concentrated on the South and West Sides. (Chicago Tribune)
The Tribune analysis found that 30 children 13 and under had been shot so far this year, compared with 25 at this time last year.

Police officials have blamed much of Chicago's violence on the flow of illegal firearms through dangerous neighborhoods and an intractable gang problem. The gangs, once highly structured and hierarchal, have fractured into small factions. With social media, petty disagreements and personal disputes can quickly turn violent, crime experts have said.

Another factor contributing to the violence could be a drop in morale among Chicago police officers because of heightened scrutiny in the fallout over the fatal shooting of black teen Laquan McDonald by a white officer. In interviews, officers told the Chicago Tribune earlier this year that they had taken a more cautious approach to their work, concerned they could end up in a viral internet video, sued or fired.

The weekend violence included Keekee Fleming, 18, fatally shot Sunday evening while attending a vigil for Nahmar Holmes, 23, who was killed on the same block on the South Side a day earlier, according to police. Two other teens were shot with Fleming near 89th and Justine streets.

The three were in a group gathered around candles and a makeshift memorial about 8:15 p.m. when a gray van pulled up and an occupant opened fire, police said. Fleming was hit in the head and pronounced dead at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park, according to police and the woman's family.

A woman was killed and two people were wounded while attending a vigil for Nahmar Holmes near 89th and Justine streets on Sept. 11, 2016. Holmes was killed the day before at the South Side location.
A 16-year-old boy was shot in the buttocks and an 18-year-old man was shot in the armpit and chest, according to police. They were taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where they were in serious to critical condition, according to Chicago fire Cmdr. Frank Velez.

The vigil was being held for Holmes, who was shot to death around 5:20 p.m. Saturday as he stood in front of a home in the same block. Police said two people walked up and began firing, hitting him several times. He was taken to the Little Company of Mary, where he was pronounced dead. Authorities said he lived on that block.

The deadliest stretch of the weekend was Saturday into Sunday morning, when four men were killed and at least 16 other people were wounded.

Among those wounded was a 17-year-old football player at Chicago Vocational Career Academy, according to police. He was standing in front of a home in the 10900 block of South Eberhart Avenue when a gray sedan drove past and fired shots, police said.

The boy was hit in the back and right hand and transported to Christ Medical Center, where his condition was stabilized.

The weekend began with a fatal shooting shortly before midnight at Division Street and Maplewood Avenue that was witnessed by police.

The officers saw a car drive by a restaurant and at least one occupant open fire, according to a law enforcement source. A person outside the restaurant began firing toward the car, according to the source.

One or more of the officers fired shots, and the person outside suffered injuries that weren't life-threatening, according to Chicago police. No officers were reported injured.

Soon after, a teen was found fatally shot in a car farther west on Division Street, police said. He is believed to have been killed in the gunfire that the officers originally witnessed, police said. He was identified as Louis Rodriguez, 18, of the 1300 block of North Oakley Boulevard.

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