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His son was killed in the worst shooting of Chicago’s most violent weekend. He ‘just happened to be one of them’

Demetrius Flowers had just returned home from work Saturday night when a friend asked him to a small block party on the West Side.

Flowers, 33, due to be married later this month, was at the party a few hours when gunmen opened fire in the 1800 block of South Kildare Avenue. A ShotSpotter detector recorded close to a minute of nearly constant gunfire, according to audio released by Chicago police.

Flowers was killed and seven other people were wounded in the worst shooting of the most violent weekend in Chicago this year. “My son just happened to be one of them,” his father Keith Flowers said. “Shots rang out. … His shots were fatal.”

Flowers said he was told by witnesses that his son, who friends and family called “Meeche,” pushed people to safety as the gunfire ripped through the crowd. “That’s just the type of person that he is,” Flowers said. “Devastating loss.”

Just two hours earlier, blocks away near Douglas Park, three women and four men were wounded when someone fired from a passing black Camaro about 1:20 a.m. Sunday. Officers were still by a playground when they heard more gunfire — about a dozen or so pops — and found two women wounded on the other side of the park.

A total of 17 people were hit in the three shootings — about a third of those shot over the weekend. Most were hit in the arm or leg. The attacks occurred in the Ogden Police District, where the department later deployed 50 extra officers on Sunday. Ambulances flooded Mount Sinai and Stroger hospitals on the West Side.

By Monday morning, 55 people had been shot across the city, seven of them fatally. The victims ranged from 5 to 56 years old, and the shootings stretched from Rogers Park on the North Side to West Pullman on the Far South Side. Nearly all the gun violence happened on the West and South sides.

The toll is slightly higher than the first weekend in June, when 52 people were shot, eight of them fatally. So far this year, at least 1,600 people have been shot in Chicago. There have been at least 300 homicides, according to data kept by the Chicago Tribune. Both numbers are below last year.

As it has done repeatedly, the department blamed the burst of weekend violence on the availability of guns and what it sees as inadequate punishment for people arrested on weapons charges. On Monday, Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson unveiled a streamlined way for the public to track felony gun cases through the court system.

At a news conference where he lamented the violent weekend in Chicago along with the mass shootings in Texas and Ohio that killed more than 30 people, Johnson revealed the Gun Offender Dashboard, a new public portal highlighting weapons-related arrest data on adults.

The site provides the public with what Johnson called a “transparent snapshot” of people arrested on gun crimes in the city, the specific gun charge and if they posted a full cash bail, 10 percent of that amount or were released without posting any money.

“You’ve heard me stress many times the importance of keeping gun offenders accountable and not making it easy for them to return to the streets a mere days after being arrested for felony gun charges,” Johnson told reporters. “This is just merely an attempt to be transparent of everything that we have going on in the judicial system. … I think it’s important for us as a city to have this information. If we’re OK with how things are going, then don’t look at it.”

Jonathan Lewin, chief of the department’s bureau of technical services, said it took a few months to create the portal on the department’s website, culling publicly available data from Chicago police, the Cook County sheriff’s department and the county Circuit Court. It will be updated weekly, he said.

In a demonstration, Lewin showed that for the little more than 1,100 people arrested by Chicago police on felony gun charges between May 1 through July 28, about two-thirds — 719 — had been released on bail, while 34 percent — 380 — remained in custody. Charges against six people had been dismissed.

Citing department data, Lewin said that nearly 13 percent of the adults arrested on felony weapons charges from January 1, 2018, through Monday were arrested again on another weapons-related charge or a violent crime. About 34 percent of the adults were arrested again for other crimes, he said.

Since becoming superintendent in 2016, Johnson has repeatedly criticized the criminal justice system for allowing too many gun offenders to be bailed out back to the streets within days of their arrests — a view disputed by Timothy Evans, Cook County’s chief judge.

In answer to a question Monday, though, Johnson disputed he has been critical of judges. “You know, it’s been characterized that I’m blaming judges. … You all use that terminology,” he said. “But what I do need their help on is sending that message of accountability. … CPD can do better, our prosecutors can do better and certainly our judges can do better. We all can do better.”

Flowers said his son’s death was not the family’s first experience with violence in Chicago. His son was with an aunt and uncle when they got into an altercation with strangers and the uncle was stabbed and shot. “These aren’t gangbangers,” Flowers said. “They’re just hanging. … When it happens, people are so numb.”

Flowers remembered his son as a humble and dependable person who served as a role model for his younger two brothers and two sisters. “He took that role in every regard.”

Flowers had recently started a new job that he was excited about and planned to move to Texas after getting married this month. He had three children: 9- and 11-year-old daughters and an 8-year-old son. Flowers said the boy has not stopped crying since the shooting.

“My son was a man of character,” Flowers said. “Great father, supportive … always engaged.”

Among the people shot with Flowers were a 14-year-old boy and 19-year-old girl, police said. The other victims were four men and a woman, all in their 20s or 30s, police said. They were all stabilized at hospitals.

The people who were shot earlier near Douglas Park were three women, ages 19, 22 and 25, and four men, ages 20, 21, 21 and 23. One of the 21-year-old men was taken to a hospital in critical condition with a gunshot wound to his groin, according to police.

About an hour later two women, 21 and 26, were shot a few blocks away in the 1300 block of South Troy Street, police said.

The weekend violence began Friday evening when a 5-year-old boy was shot in the leg while sitting in a car as adults around him argued.

About 7:20 p.m., Chicago police officers responded to gunshots in the 6700 block of South Parnell Avenue and found the boy shot and two adults stabbed. The 5-year-old had a gunshot wound to his thigh and was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, where he was stabilized. A 33-year-old woman and 34-year-old man were both stabbed in the arm, police said.

Chicago police said a 28-year-old woman and 29-year-old man stabbed the adults, and the 29-year-old fired at the 33-year-old’s vehicle and struck the boy, who was sitting inside. The 28-year-old woman and 29-year-old man were arrested in connection with the attacks, police said.

Chicago Tribune’s Morgan Greene contributed

ayin@chicagotribune.com

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