Aspiring videographer killed in Chicago’s 800th murder in 2021 – NBC Chicago

Around dawn on Tuesday, Sheridan Freeman was in a home in West Pullman when gunfire and the 23-year-old was fatally shot, becoming the 800th recorded homicide victim in Chicago this year.

Crossing that deadly mark was common in the 1990s but has rarely happened since. According to Sun-Times data, homicides have increased in the city for the second year in a row, and shootings are increasing at an even faster rate.

Shelton was killed at a property that had been hit by a shooting the day before, in a neighborhood among the deadliest in Chicago despite being targeted by City Hall for more resources.

Police have released some details about Freeman’s death. He was shot around 6:30 a.m. inside a log cabin on the 12000 block of South Stewart Avenue, less than a mile from where he lived.

Freeman has a 1-year-old son and is a budding videographer who often films his brother rapping, his mother said.

“He was fun, very smart and talented,” said Diane Archer. “He makes videos and wants to go to film school. But time is running out.”

The day before Freeman was shot, a 29-year-old man was injured in a shootout while driving down the same block at 3:15 a.m., police said.

Police said there were no arrests in both shootings.

Shootings and homicides increased dramatically in Chicago in early 2020, up 50% from the previous year. The pace has increased this year.

Chicago recorded 784 homicides in 2020 and 552 in 2019, according to medical examiner data. There were 806 homicides in 2016.

According to police data, at least 4,328 people have been shot in Chicago this year, compared with 4,013 in 2020 and 2,556 in 2019 during the same period.

More than 50% of the violence occurred in 15 of Chicago’s 77 community areas.

Those 15 areas have been targeted with increased spending on violence prevention in Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s “Our Cities, Our Safety” plan, introduced in 2019. It funded street access, affordable housing, job training, health and fitness, community development.

But since violent crime began to rise here and across the country in early 2020, most areas targeted for extra spending have seen an increase in shootings and homicides. .

One of the areas targeted was West Pullman, which has seen one of the sharpest increases in violence. Homicides have increased by 450% since 2019 in West Pullman, from six homicides in 2019 to 34 this year, according to a Sun-Times analysis of city data.

The West side has some of the deadliest neighborhoods. At least 69 people have been killed in Austin this year, 43 in Lawndale. Humboldt Park, like West Pullman, has recorded 34 homicides.

On the South Side, Greater Grand Crossing and Auburn Gresham, each had 38 homicides; South Shore, 37 years old; Englewood, 32 years old; and Roseland, 26 years old.

Eleven Chicago communities have reported no homicides this year, most of them in the North or Far Northwest.