For children in Chicago’s Little Village, a predominantly Mexican neighborhood on the Southwest Side, there’s no buffer between a moment of family joy and the sudden terror of bullets flying. Broad daylight gives no cover. Neither does Halloween trick or treating on a street full of costumed children, nor the gentle comfort of a mother’s hand on a Saturday afternoon.
Melissa Ortega, 8, was holding her mother’s hand as they walked along 26th Street in Little Village on Jan. 22. She had just asked her mom, Aracelia Leanos, for a hamburger. “Of course,” Leanos answered.
Then the crack of gunfire. Melissa and her mother began running. Suddenly, Leanos no longer felt the grip of Melissa’s hand. Her daughter was on the ground in a puddle of blood, felled by a fatal gunshot wound to the head.
Chicago now knows what put Melissa and her mother in the line of fire. All it took was the flash of a rival gang sign for the shooter, a 16-year-old boy, to want to kill, prosecutors say.
That teen, identified by authorities as Emilio Corripio, has been charged as an adult with Melissa’s murder. Prosecutors allege Corripio saw rival gang members flash gang signs, got out of the car he was in, and began spraying bullets. A bullet struck one of the rival gang members, who ran into a nearby building. More bullets struck a nearby car with a 9-year-old girl inside. She was not hurt. Yet another bullet killed Melissa.
Neither the boy nor the car’s driver, Xavier Guzman, 27 and also charged with Melissa’s murder, stayed to help Melissa. Instead, they drove to a nearby Subway to have sandwiches, prosecutors say.
As Melissa’s mother grieved, they ate.
Bisected by 26th Street, Little Village is a prime reason why Chicago is known as a “City of Neighborhoods.” The scent of fresh tortillas and carnitas routinely wafts along its sidewalks. Muraled buildings turn streetscapes into outdoor galleries. Stereos blare corridos and mariachi music. Just like nearby Pilsen, “La Villita” is also Chicago’s Little Mexico.
But for far too long, Little Village has been a neighborhood under siege.
— On Halloween night 2019 at 5:30 p.m., a 7-year-old girl dressed in a Minnie Mouse outfit was walking with her brothers on a sidewalk teeming with costumed children when a gunman who spotted a gang rival across the street fired at the rival — and into the crowd of children. The girl was shot in the neck and chest. Somehow, she survived. The shooter, who was 15 at the time, was later arrested and charged with attempted murder. Prosecutors say after the shooting, the boy and his friends heard on a police scanner that a 7-year-old girl had been shot. Later, they went to a nearby restaurant to eat tortas.
Yes, that’s right. They heard what happened, and went out to eat.
— On Dec. 14, 2019, Angie Monroy, a 16-year-old high school junior, was walking through Little Village about 9:45 p.m. when someone fired a gun from a passing pickup truck. Angie was hit in the head with a bullet and died the next day. Police said she was an unintended victim of violence between rival gangs. A witness told police he heard the gunman yell out gang slogans moments before firing.
There are more examples, far too many more. For years, Little Village has been in the crosshairs of the rivalry between the Latin Kings and Gangster Two-Six gangs. The neighborhood was also home to El Chapo’s top point men in Chicago, second generation drug traffickers Pedro and Margarito Flores. Mayor after mayor has tried and failed to rein in gang violence in Little Village. After every killing of a child, news conferences are held. Pledges to find the killers are made. Patrols get beefed up.
And nothing changes.
Chicago can no longer accept the status quo in Little Village and other neighborhoods where parents wonder whether their children will survive another day on the sidewalk, or in their front yard.
After Melissa’s death, police Superintendent David Brown saturated Little Village with police patrols to solve her slaying. With the help of Little Village residents who came forward with what they saw and knew, police found Melissa’s alleged killers. But Chicago’s response to the killing of its children cannot always be after the fact. It cannot always entail a resolution that does nothing to fix a mother forever robbed of her child’s smile.
In announcing charges against Melissa’s alleged killers, Mayor Lori Lightfoot spoke about the hurt Little Village is feeling.
“It’s way past time that we act, that we come together, that we bring peace to this beautiful, vibrant community of Little Village,” Lightfoot said. “We have to provide every possible support and resource that amplifies the strength and vibrancy of this community.”
A heartfelt message, yes. But in the end, just words. Lightfoot has been in office for more than 2½ years, and Little Village remains a community of hardworking families paralyzed daily by the pall of gang violence. Yes, Mayor Lightfoot, it’s past time. This city’s leaders — in the public and private sectors — must take on the root causes of gang violence that holds hostage Little Village and Chicago neighborhoods.
They can start by taking aim at the conditions that lead to gang membership. Joblessness. A dearth of resources devoted to meaningful, engaging youth programs. A glaring lack of mentors. And a sense of hopelessness that makes it alluring to belong to a gang.
If Lightfoot, Brown, the City Council and Chicago’s business leaders need any more motivation, they just need to listen to the plea from Melissa’s mother. “How is it possible that a little girl dies in broad daylight?” Leanos said in a statement. “How is it possible that we can send men to Mars but we can’t fix the gun violence in our city?”
Those words should compel the people who govern and lead this city into action.
