A spate of violence gripped the Chicago area this weekend, from fatal beatings to a midday gun attack along the Eisenhower Expressway to the shooting of a South Side store employee during a robbery.
One of the first victims in a particularly brutal 24-hour period was Keitero Carter, 17, of the 6400 block of South Lowe Avenue.
On Friday night, Carter and his girlfriend, Marlo Willis, had gone out to celebrate her 18th birthday, according to Carter’s mother, Darlene.
But the celebration quickly turned to tragedy when Carter apparently argued with one of the guests at a party and was chased outside by five men. The girlfriend escaped as the men bludgeoned Carter with a brick in the 7200 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue, according to Sgt. Ronald Palmer of the Pullman Area violent crimes unit.
“If they wanted to hurt him, they could have just broken his arm or something,” his mother said. “They didn’t have to kill him.”
On Saturday afternoon, chaos broke out on the eastbound Eisenhower Expressway in west suburban Hillside when a van pulled alongside an automobile and shots were fired at the car’s driver, according to Illinois State Police Capt. Laurence Mulcrone. The car swerved, spun into a third vehicle and crashed into a railing, leaving traffic snarled, Mulcrone said.
The driver, an unidentified 33-year-old man, was taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where he was listed in good condition Saturday with a gunshot wound to the leg, according to a nursing supervisor. A female passenger and a 2-year-old child who also was in the car sustained minor injuries resulting from flying glass, Mulcrone said. No one in the third vehicle was injured, he said.
Four suspects were arrested by Broadview police a few miles east of where the attack took place, officials said.
Also on Saturday, an unidentified man was found beaten to death in a back yard in the 2400 block of North Major Avenue.
Meanwhile, Youngok Kim, 48, was shot in the head during a robbery at the Continental Wig shop, 1726 W. 95th St., according to Sgt. Rich Kobel of the Pullman Area violent crimes unit.
Kim, who works in the store, was shot in the temple after a man walked into the shop and pulled her into a back room, Kobel said. The gunman fled on foot, Kobel said.
Kim was listed in critical condition at Christ Hospital and Medical Center in Oak Lawn, according to a nursing supervisor.