CHICAGO – The Latest on Chicago gang activity (all times local):
5:50 p.m.
A Chicago gangs case announced by state and federal officials is one of the first that puts a spotlight on how fully gangs have embraced social media to goad foes and brag about their crimes.
Charging documents unsealed Friday accuse five members of the Goonie Boss gang faction of killing at least 11 people and terrorizing their South Side neighborhood.
In all, 23 people have been charged in an investigation that stretches back years. Other suspects were charged earlier, before authorities revealed the scope of the case Friday.
The U.S. attorney in Chicago, John Lausch, told reporters that investigators pulled evidence against the suspects from their social media postings.
The filings don't say the gang resorted to violence to protect lucrative drug turf but rather that they seemed to obsess most over how to boost their reputations and status.
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12:15 a.m.
Twenty-three people have been charged in a major Chicago street-gangs case that includes 11 killings.
Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Friday that the suspects face both federal and state charges. At least some of the suspects are purported members of the Goonie Boss street-gang faction based in the Englewood neighborhood on the city's South Side.
Guglielmi said Chicago police were paired with FBI agents in the investigation. State prosecutors were also deputized as federal prosecutors to file both state and federal charges. The goal was to bring the most serious charges possible.
U.S. Attorney John Lausch and Cook County State's Attorney Kimberly Foxx were among those scheduled to speak about the charges later Friday.
Chicago has some 60 gangs, with several hundred factions within them. The city has had more than 450 homicides this year, many of which police have linked to gangs.
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11:15 a.m.
Authorities say an attack in Chicago that wounded five people was likely in retaliation for one earlier this week in which an aspiring rapper and five other people were shot at a funeral.
Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Friday that there's a "high probability" that the Wednesday attack in the Washington Park neighborhood is connected to Monday's funeral attack in Burnside. Both neighborhoods are on the South Side.
Disputes between the Black Disciple and Gangster Disciple gangs have long underpinned violence in the neighborhoods. Taunts on social media and in raps songs help fuel tensions.
Police had warned that retaliation was likely after the attack in which 21-year-old rapper Marvel "FBG Wooski" Williams was shot in the head. He was in stable condition Monday after surgery.
In his song, "Computers Remix," denounces rivals while flashing gang signs.
There have been no arrests in either shooting.
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