53 people arrested, 9 weapons seized during large teen gathering in Hyde Park
The long holiday weekend proved to be violent once again, with 37 people shot. Fortunately, no one was killed.
That includes three teenagers shot in Hyde Park, not far from where a teen gathering turned violent on the lakefront.
Police say they are still looking for the suspect who shot the teens, but Ald. Desmon Yancy (5th Ward) said that before things got out of hand at 57th Street Beach and moved into Hyde Park, officers confiscated dozens of weapons, including tasers, guns, knives, and bear mace.
Chicago police on Tuesday said that 53 people were arrested, and nine weapons were recovered.
Police say 21 of those people, including 10 juveniles, were charged with disorderly conduct for failing to obey a lawful order to disperse. One other juvenile was charged with disorderly conduct for breach of peace.
Seven other people, five of whom are juveniles, were each charged with a misdemeanor count of reckless conduct.
Ten people, including eight juveniles, were charged with various misdemeanor charges, including resisting or obstructing a peace officer, battery, criminal trespass to land, and possessing ammunition without a valid FOID
Thirteen other people, ages ranging from 14 to 28, received felony charges for possessing a weapon and battery. Police said charges are pending against one more person.
Hyde Park resident Gilda Norris saw the chaos outside her apartment building.
"They were out there deep," she said.
She means more than a thousand teenagers were near 55th and Everett on Monday evening.
"The kids definitely outnumbered the police, and there were a lot of police men," she said.
Ald. Desmon Yancy says it all started at the beach. That's where the teen trend that he and CPD officers were aware of was pre-planned.
"My understanding, the flyer went out mid-last week. There were 12 police districts on site yesterday, which you think would have been able to help prevent what happened yesterday, but unfortunately, things got out of hand, and people were hurt," Yancy said.
Three teens were shot near 55th and Cornell. An 18-year-old and two 19-year-olds were standing outside when shots rang out.
Police released an image of the man on Tuesday, believed to be the shooter.
Yancy says that's connected to the teen takeover, which spilled into the Hyde Park neighborhood.
"It's my understanding that as CPD looked to move most of the people off of the beach and off of the point, they ended up moving into the neighborhood, and the shooting took place really just a block away from here," he said.
That shooting is just two blocks from where Norris grabbed her phone and started recording the teens surrounding her and other neighbors' cars.
"I saw them going around my car, and my neighbor, they was jumping his car. So that's why I went outside, sat in my car, turned on the lights to keep them from destroying my car," she said.
When asked what can be done to prevent the gatherings from happening again, especially since this isn't the first teen takeover in Hyde Park, Yancy says social media accounts should be held accountable so the flyers can't float around on different platforms.