Homicide Numbers Climb?

Just as July is drawing to a close and everyone is thinking we might see the first reduction in the number of killings as compared month-to-month since something like October of last year, the wounded start dying and throwing the whole thing into jeopardy:

• A South Side man shot and critically wounded over the weekend died at a Chicago hospital, authorities said today.

  The 26-year-old victim was shot in the face by two gunmen as he sat on his front porch in the 5700 block of South Sangamon Street in the Englewood neighborhood about 12:35 a.m. Saturday, police said.

• A mother of three young children became the second person to die from a gang-related shooting at a Southeast Side park that also left a 17-year-old boy dead, authorities said this morning.

  The woman, Janeen Hancock, 34, was pronounced dead at John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County at 7:35 p.m. Tuesday, nearly an entire day after two males sprayed gunfire across Merrill Park near 96th Place and Merrill Avenue in the Jeffery Manor neighborhood on the Southeast Side.

This means a whole lot of press conferences scheduled to brag about the "decrease in the increase" have now been put on hold until such time as the actual totals are tallied up.