ENGLEWOOD — Jason Scott's family doesn't expect his killer to be caught.
Scott, they said, had a criminal record. He hung out in the street. Like many formerly incarcerated men, he couldn't find a job despite numerous attempts, they said. He, at times, was involved with "the wrong crowd."
Scott, a lifelong Chicago resident from "a close-knit family," was shot and killed Wednesday night. But his death won't change the violence plaguing the South and West sides of the city, his family said.
"That's a name the city is going to have to reckon with," Steven Foley, Scott's father said from his family's porch in the 6000 block of South Ada Street. "I done lost my son, and I'm not going to let his character be degraded."
Scott was shot and killed on a night when four others were shot and survived. His family said they think seven people were actually shot that night — some of whom went unreported.
According to authorities, police officers were waved down by residents early Wednesday morning and arrived to find Scott fatally shot multiple times and a 28-year-old man shot in the buttocks in the 5800 block of South Sangamon Street.
The 28-year-old was taken to Stroger Hospital in stable condition and questioned about the shooter. Police said the man was uncooperative.
On Wednesday, neighbors said shootings in the area are fairly common, and some chalked them up to "drugs and turf" problems. They said the Wednesday morning shootings were likely retaliation for the overnight homicide, and they expect more retaliation could be on the way.
"We're used to it," said 39-year-old Englewood resident Lashawn, who declined to give her last name.
Foley and Scott's aunt, Diane Schuford, described Scott as someone, who despite his "good heart," will not have justice.
"I've worked and been a taxpayer all my life. If my sons can't be protected from the city, then who can protect them?" said Foley, who is aided by a green oxygen tube that trailed from his nose, across his porch and into his home.
"When it happens in our neighborhood, nothing gets done," Schuford said. "We have no control over things — God is in control."
Scott's friends and family said the father of two teen daughters attended church on the Sunday before his death to confess past crimes and describe the cycle of unemployment he had become locked into.
"It's just like a hospital," Schuford said, "Church is for people who want to get better. He wanted encouragement, and you can't get that off the street."
"But it's tough when you want to feed your family, but you can't get a job, and the resources aren't there."
Foley said that Scott, the second youngest of his children, was not, and never had been in a gang. But police said both Scott and the man shot with him have "documented gang affiliation."
Foley said a gangbanger is "a person who participates in turf," and that was not his son.
"We feel he was taken for nothing," Foley said, explaining that details of his son's death have reached him only through news reports. "We ain't no fools out here — this is the real McCoy. ... He didn't have to die like he did."
Contributing: Erica Demarest
