Chicago Shootings: 6 Wounded By Gunfire Within 15 Minutes, Religious Leaders Call For Peace

6 Wounded, 2 Fatally, In Shootings Over 15 Minutes In Chicago

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Fourteen people were wounded by gunfire overnight Tuesday, including two people who were fatally shot, in Chicago.

Alixi Johnson, 17, was gunned down in a shooting that wounded three others who were standing in Merrill Park in the city's South Deering neighborhood around 10:18 pm. Monday, the Chicago Tribune reports.

According to police, at least two gunmen approached Johnson, another man and two women and opened fire, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Johnson was shot in the neck and was pronounced dead at Oak Lawn's Advocate Christ Medical Center at 11:01 p.m.

Janeen Hancock, 33, was pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital at 7:35 p.m. Tuesday, one day after she was wounded in the chest and abdomen in the shooting, according to CBS Chicago. Both other victims were listed in stable condition Wednesday.

Just fifteen minutes before the Merrill Park shooting, two other people, one of them a 13-year-old boy, were shot in the city's Chicago Lawn neighborhood, according to the Sun-Times. The boy was shot in the left thigh and taken in good condition to the hospital. The other male injured in the shooting, 18, was shot twice -- in the back and right foot -- and is recovering.

Eight other people were shot Monday evening into early Tuesday, according to NBC Chicago. No one is in custody in any of the shootings as of early Tuesday afternoon. Three people were fatally shot and 26 others wounded by gun violence over the most recent weekend in Chicago.

Homicides and shootings in Chicago are both up this year over last, with homicides up 39 percent in the city through the end of June. Despite the spike of gun violence, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy have defended their crime-fighting tactics, particularly their strategy on Chicago gangs, whom police say are responsible for the bulk of the shootings.

The gun violence prompted a coalition of some 70 faith leaders from throughout the city and area suburbs to gather together Monday and call for a weekend of peace in Chicago.

"Chicago seems like it's become a war zone," New Landmark Missionary Baptist Church Pastor Cy Fields told the Chicago Tribune. "We're calling on every facet, every institution and all the residents to get involved. All of us have some skin in the game."

Community activist Andrew Holmes has responded to the shootings by calling on area radio stations to stop playing "gangsta rap music" in an effort to discourage violent behavior, according to CBS Chicago. Holmes specifically pointed to 17-year-old local rapper Chief Keef as advocating for a "no-snitch" culture through his music.

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan has also sprung into action amid the city's homicide spike. On Monday, Farrakhan and his followers walked through the city's South Shore neighborhood and distributed their anti-violence literature and DVDs, the Sun-Times reports.

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