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Gunman opens fire at pickup basketball game in Chicago, 13 woundedBy Chicago Tribune, adapted by Newsela staff? Sep. 22, 2013A shooting victim being taken from the Cornell Square Park's basketball courts, near the intersection of 50th and Wood in Chicago, Sept. 19, 2013. A gunman opened fire during a pickup basketball game, wounding 13 people. Photo: E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/MCTCHICAGO — A gunman opened fire on a pickup basketball game in a Chicago neighborhood late Thursday, injuring 13 people and putting the spotlight back on the city for its out-of-control gun violence. The shooter fired with a military-style assault rifle.A 3-year-old boy was among the victims. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel cut short an East Coast trip to fly back home on Friday because of the shooting. Reporters from Chicago and around the world questioned whether the city had reached a new level of lawlessness. Both the type of gun used and the number of people wounded made the incident more extreme than past shootings.Bullet casings found around the blood-soaked basketball courts at Cornell Square Park were the kind typically fired from AK-47 assault rifles. They are rarely found in gang attacks in the city. Gun violence has long plagued poor neighborhoods here. But shooters almost never use military-style weapons.Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said it was a miracle that nobody was killed."It Was Like Everybody Was Hit"“Illegal guns, illegal guns, illegal guns drive violence. … A military-grade weapon on the streets of Chicago is simply unacceptable,” McCarthy said.The park is in the city’s Back of the Yards neighborhood, an area with high gang activity. But it is not in a so-called impact zone flooded by officers to discourage crime, McCarthy said. The nearest zones are three blocks to the north and three blocks to the south. Cornell Square is protected only by occasional patrols and an 11 p.m. curfew.At least one gunman walked to the basketball court on West 51st Street and opened fire 45 minutes before the park's closing time, police said. The 13 people hit included both players and spectators. All of the victims are expected to survive.Kevin Gordon, 31, said he was talking to his cousin when he was shot in the buttocks and fell to the ground.“It was the longest seconds of my life. It felt like forever,” Gordon said. “I was about to run but I couldn’t. I could feel ’em whizzing by me. Then it stopped. I looked up and everything was over with. I’m like ‘I’m hit.’ I looked around; it was like everybody was hit.”A 3-Year-Old Among VictimsThree-year-old Deonta Howard was shot near the ear, police and relatives said. The bullet exited through his cheek. His family said the boy will need plastic surgery.“They shot my baby with a gun that’s bigger than him,” said his mother Shamarah Leggett. “It’s out of control.”Relatives said the boy’s uncle was shot and killed over the Labor Day weekend.“This gun violence has to stop,” Leggett said. “It has to. My baby is only 3. How is he shot in the face with an army gun? Where are they getting army guns from?”Police believe the shooting stemmed from an ongoing dispute between two gangs. It was not known if any of the victims were the intended targets. Authorities have not made any arrests. They are currently reviewing police cameras mounted nearby. There could be as many as three offenders, officials said.Worries About Gang FightingThe first paramedics on the scene found more than a dozen people lying across the rust-colored court. One person lay near a bicycle that was on its side. A pair of white gym shoes were left near an out-of-bounds line. Ambulances continued to arrive for nearly a half hour after the shooting as wounded people were carried out on stretchers. They included a 15-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl. About 60 police officers swarmed the park and crime lab investigators combed the scene.Mario Campbell?was shot three times in the abdomen. He had been worried about gang conflicts in the past week, his mother Diane Cade said. The 25-year-old is trying to be a cook. He?stayed inside most of the week but went to the park with friends to watch the basketball game.“Out here it’s hard for a boy, no matter what you try to do with your life, no matter how you try to change … it’s hard,” Cade said.McCarthy repeatedly refused to say whether the shooting hurts the city’s reputation.“Every time somebody is shot in this city, it’s a setback,” McCarthy said. “But this is not a problem particular to the city of Chicago.”Mayor Visits Victims At HospitalUpon his return from Washington, Mayor Emanuel spent 40 minutes at Mount Sinai Hospital, where he spoke with Deonta’s mother. The boy was medicated and being prepared for an operation during the visit. The mayor did not speak with reporters, but later attended a prayer gathering where he urged residents to live by a “moral code.”“The parks in the city of Chicago belong to the families of the city of Chicago. The streets of the city of Chicago belong to the families of Chicago. The front stoops of our homes belong to the families of the city of Chicago,” he told the crowd. “You go out there and you enjoy our city.”The shooting came just days after the FBI released information showing that Chicago had more murders than New York in 2012. McCarthy argued Friday that the information was more than nine months old?and did not reflect the city's progress. The murder rate in Chicago rate has dropped by 20 percent over the past year.But Alderman Willie Cochran, a retired police sergeant, acknowledged the shootings damaged the city’s crime-fighting efforts.“It’s a setback because we’ve been focusing so much attention on suppressing crime,” he said. ................
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