Monday Deadliest Day in Chicago Since 2003: Report

Paper's analysis of police data shows the beginning of the week had most recorded homicides in more than a decade

Nineteen people were shot, including 10-year-old Tavon Tanner, in Chicago on Monday, making it the deadliest single day in a little more than a decade according to the Chicago Tribune.

The paper reported the first day of the week held the most homicides, nine, in a single day since July 5, 2003, which saw 10 homicides.

Authorities say Tavon was with his mother and aunt around 10:15 p.m. Monday outside their home in the 3900 block of West Polk in the city’s Garfield Park neighborhood when at least five gunshots rang out, and he was struck in the lower back.

The boy’s mother, Mellanie Washington, told NBC 5 she knew Chicago had a problem with gun violence, but she never thought a bullet would hit her child.

“All I saw was Tavon hit the floor,” Washington said.

He was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital, according to police.

On Tuesday morning Washington said her son was out of surgery and recovering after one bullet tore through his kidney, pancreas, intestines and spleen.

Doctors say he has a long road ahead, but the family is trying to stay strong for Tavon, who was set to be entering the fifth grade. No one is in custody as police continue to investigate the shooting.

The Tribune reported that before Tavon was shot, it was still light out, and his family heard gun shots down the street. A man in his 20s at a basketball court Tavon was reportedly not allowed to play was shot in the head, and two hours later another man was shot to death about four blocks away.

Tavon was shot less than an hour later, the Tribune reported.

Tribune data shows more than 2,500 people shot in Chicago this year with 426 homicides, a level of violence the paper says was unparalleled since the 1990s.

While Tavon’s family waited outside Mount Sinai where he underwent almost four hours of surgery, another shooting victim’s family was also grieving just down the street, the paper reported.

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