Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Your friends and family miss and love you, Omar Flores

Memorial for the late Omar Flores as photographed by Carl Nyberg

Albany Park may no longer be Little Beirut, but its residents are still dying here, every year. Twenty-one year old Omar Flores, a known gang member according to police, died last week after being shot in the head in broad daylight. He was one of three victims that were killed by gun violence last week. The other 25 people that were shot last week survived. But this isn't a post about gun violence and gang statistics, because Flores is not just a statistic. From the Chicago Tribune:

About 3:10 p.m. Tuesday, a 21-year-old man was shot while sitting in the passenger seat of a vehicle in the 4700 block of North Lawndale Avenue when two males, both wearing hooded sweatshirts, approached on foot and opened fire, police said.

Flores died the next day. As of Saturday, no one has been charged with murder. Flores mother, in DNAinfo:

"You can't imagine the feeling of a mother losing her only son and he was my youngest," said Ortiz, who also has two daughters.
 The makeshift sidewalk memorial was photographed this Sunday at Ainslie and Ridgeway.