ROGERS PARK — Some residents feel Rogers Park has been eerily quiet since a spate of gun violence claimed the lives of several people, including that of 16-year-old Keno Glass on Tuesday.
"We were walking around, and it just seems so quiet and desolate sometimes, especially after an incident [of violence]," said Artie Philie. "That makes us kind of feel a little isolated, sort of this postwar quiet vibe."
Philie, 39, and his fiancée Kim Woody, 36, said they signed a lease on their apartment at Clark Street and Farwell Avenue a couple of weeks after 17-year-old Markeyo Carr was killed by a masked gunman in a McDonald's parking lot nearby.
Since then, two other people have been killed and several others injured in neighborhood gun violence.
Ald. Joe Moore (49th) said Thursday in an email to constituents that the Rogers Park police district had received reinforcements — including from the Evanston Police Department — to prevent "another outbreak of violence."
He also said increased police pressure on suspected gang members has led to the confiscation of six guns, some fully loaded, and the arrest of the people carrying them.
In addition, Moore said a suspect was arrested and charged with a March 25 shooting in the 7400 block of North Ashland Avenue that police said injured a 23-year-old man. A Chicago Police Department spokesman, however, said Thursday evening that no one had been charged in the incident.
Three days after the March 25 shooting, a woman's son and grandson were shot on Morse Avenue.
On April 8, Darnall Gordon, 36, was killed and two other men were injured in a shooting inside a Howard Street convenience store. The men were inside when someone outside opened fire through the store's windows, police said.
On April 11, two people were shot in separate incidents in the neighborhood. A woman was shot in her leg in the 6600 block of North Sheridan Road and a man was shot in his cheek in the 1600 block of Morse Avenue.
Then, on Tuesday, Keno Glass, 16, was gunned down outside a friend's apartment about 2:40 a.m. in the 7600 block of North Ashland Avenue.
Officials have attributed at least some of the gun violence to a long-standing feud between two factions of the Gangster Disciples street gang. Within the Howard Street area, a gang known as "Loyalty Over Cash," and within the Morse Avenue area, a gang known as the "Insane Cutthroat Gangsters" are going at each other, police said.
Police Sgt. Bob Kane said at a CAPS meeting Thursday that there were no updates available on the recent shootings.
Philie and Woody said they came out to the meeting to get more involved with other community members who want the violence to end.
"I wasn't scared when I lived in Rogers Park before," said Woody, who said she lived in the neighborhood a few years ago. "But I'm actually really scared right now. Like, taking my dog out at night — the walks are really short."
Said Philie: "She's having trouble sleeping. It's really surreal."
