Terror Town lies in the South Chicago police district. According to department statistics, the district had 59 shootings through May of this year compared to 37 during the first five months of 2013, an increase of 59 percent.
Police call it Terror Town, a 2-block by 4-block patch of South Shore where apparent gang conflicts have erupted into three mass shootings in a little over two years.
The latest occurred Monday evening when a gunman walked up to a strip mall on East 79th Street and fired into a crowd, wounding six people, including two boys ages 14 and 16. All are expected to survive.
Police have made no arrests but they are looking into whether the boys, the youngest victims of the shooting, may have been the targets. They are believed to be members of a Gangster Disciples faction that has been feuding with a faction of the Black P Stones. Police consider their rivalry among the most violent in the city.
There have been two other mass shootings in that area since February of 2012, and gangs are believed to have been at the heart of both.
On Feb. 19, 2012, a gunman fired into a crowd standing in front of a liquor store at 79th Street and Essex Avenue — about two blocks from Monday’s shooting — killing two people and wounding five others. Six months later, eight people were wounded in a shooting near the same corner.
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