Two people are dead and two more are fighting for their lives after four gunmen opened fire at a South Side Chicago gas station — another night of blood in a city that has disarmed the law-abiding while failing to keep violent criminals off the streets.
The attack happened just after midnight Thursday at a BP station on the 7600 block of South Halsted in Auburn Gresham, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. A 53-year-old woman and a 46-year-old man were pronounced dead at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Two other women, ages 35 and 33, were listed in critical condition with gunshot wounds. The four shooters fled south through an alley. Area 2 detectives are investigating — which, in Chicago, often means waiting for the next shooting.
Meanwhile, in the suburbs, a Kane County courtroom showed what accountability actually looks like. Jimmy Medina, 19, was convicted Tuesday of first-degree murder and attempted murder in a 2023 drive-by shooting in Carpentersville that killed 17-year-old Anthony Aragon and wounded two others, the Chicago Tribune reported. Medina fired multiple rounds into a car while his cousin Alan Medina drove. He faces 20 to 60 years for murder and 6 to 30 for attempted murder. His cousin's case is still pending. Assistant State's Attorney Kelly Orland called it a tragedy — but at least this prosecutor's office secured a conviction.
Down in Senatobia, Mississippi, a different kind of accountability question is brewing. An independent autopsy of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley — killed June 14 when a Senatobia police officer fired into a car in a Walmart parking lot — found the child died from a shotgun wound that entered the right side of his chest and exited the left, according to attorneys Ben Crump and Van Turner. The family says the trajectory proves the car was moving away from officers, not toward them as police claimed. A photo displayed at a news conference showed a shattered passenger-side window and a bullet hole in the front windshield on the passenger side.
"How are you going to fear for your life when you're shooting from the side?" Crump said, as reported by NewsBreak.
State investigators' initial account said the driver "drove in the direction of the officers, almost striking one." The officer involved has been placed on leave. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation declined to comment. The official autopsy isn't complete. And the body camera, dashcam, and Walmart surveillance footage remain locked away.
Crump emphasized the pathologist didn't have complete information. Policing expert Ian Adams told Live 5 News that investigators need vehicle positioning, seating arrangements, and officer locations before drawing firm conclusions from bullet wounds alone. But the refusal to release the video is fueling exactly the distrust it's supposed to prevent.
The whole encounter started over diapers that may have been shoplifted. A 1-year-old is dead.
In Chicago, the shooters are still walking free. In Mississippi, the video is still hidden. In Carpentersville, at least, a killer is heading to prison. The pattern is clear enough: when the system works, it's the exception — and when it fails, ordinary Americans pay the price.
