Since last Thursday, there have been three fatal shootings in Evanston.
Early Thursday morning, 20-year-old Brian Carrion, a Glenview resident, was killed just across the Chicago border after being shot near the Howard Street CTA Red Line station. A 20-year-old Evanston man was injured during the shooting.
Then, on Saturday, just after midnight, police found Deashawn Turner, 21, shot in a house in the 2200 block of Emerson Street.
And, on Sunday afternoon, while young activists were holding a peaceful protest in front of EPD headquarters doing yoga and holding conversations with Chief Cook and officers Enjoli Daley and Tosha Wilson, 29-year-old Andrew Williams was shot and killed in the front yard of his mother's house in the 1900 block of Hartrey Avenue where family and friends were having a cookout to celebrate Williams' 30th birthday, which is today.
If you have any information, no matter how incidental, please contact the Evanston Police or text an anonymous tip to “274637”. Then start your message with EPDTIP (to ensure the tip is routed to the proper police department).
In a message to her constituents, Ald. Robin Rue Simmons addressed Saturday and Sunday's violence, which took place in her ward.
"Community and intra-racial violence is a symptom of poverty, our poverty is a condition of institutional racism, and racism is laced throughout our policy and culture," she wrote.
"Improved lighting and increased police presence will help deter and reveal criminal acts, and that’s of paramount importance. Unfortunately, more arrests separate and displace families, reduce the self-esteem of our youth, and sustains poverty. More arrests are continued support for mass incarceration and high recidivism rates."
Rue Simmons said she demands more convictions for gun crimes in Evanston, but, she said she is asking that we all prioritize its root causes.
"Here is where I sound like a broken record," she wrote. "Anything less than reparations is an inadequate policy response to our conditions and our disparities. It has been empirically demonstrated that we are failing in our efforts of collective uplift."
Ald. Simmons will speak with the mothers of the two young men and will let us know how we can assist and support them.
In the meantime, today's scheduled Q&A on Policing with Mayor Steve Hagerty addressed body cameras and use of force. You can watch the session here.
Tonight's City Council meeting will focus on the weekend's violence. With five out of nine City Council members on record as supporting defunding the Evanston Police Department--Braithwaite (2), Wilson (4), Rue Simmons (5), Revelle (7), and Fleming (9), who was the first City Council member to support defunding in a statement on June 19 (Mayor Hagerty has said he is opposed to defunding), tonight could be the night that first steps are taken toward action.
Fleming told the Daily Northwestern it was time for the city to reconcile its reputation as a “holy mecca of race” with the reality of life for Evanston’s non-white residents.
“Just because we haven’t had a George Floyd or a Breonna Taylor doesn’t mean what we have is working,” Fleming said. (Mayor Hagerty has said he is opposed to defunding), tonight could be the night that first steps are taken toward action. Read a fuller report of where City Council members stand on defunding in the Daily Northwestern.
You can watch the meeting on Channel 16.
You may sign up for public comment at the City Council meeting here.
The City Council meeting begins at 5:30 p.m.
