After Spike In Humboldt Park Shootings, Violence Interrupters Working To Resolve Gang Conflicts

HUMBOLDT PARK — Community leaders are ramping up efforts to interrupt gang violence amid a series of Humboldt Park shootings in recent months.

There have been 28 shootings, five of them fatal, in the neighborhood since July, according to city crime data. During the same time period last year, there were 16 shootings that left one person dead.

Among the violence: The were four shootings Sept. 25-Oct. 1 in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, killing two people and wounding four others, according to police and media reports. On Sept. 15, a man was shot dead and two others were stabbed during a fight in Humboldt Park, the Sun-Times reported.

Pablo Galvez, a violence intervention manager with West Side violence prevention organization BUILD, said there have been more turf wars between gangs in Humboldt Park and West Humboldt Park since summer, resulting in more targeted gang violence.

Galvez and his team have worked more with members of opposing gangs to mediate and resolve conflicts, which has been successful, but it can take time to mediate, he said.

“At BUILD, we have people from different sides [of gangs], and our strategy is knowing who was the victim and who was the shooter,” Galvez said. “There are things that we can’t control, but we try to mediate temporarily. In the meantime, some of them are pending — mediation takes time and a few months.”

Read the full story from Block Club Chicago here.