Why is Chicago a murder capital? Clues from a bloody month

CHICAGO -- Fourteen-year-old Malik Causey loved the way gangs took what they wanted from people on the street, the way members fought for each other, the way they could turn drugs into cash and cash into $400 jeans.

His mother tried to stop him. She yanked him out of houses where he didn't belong. She cooked up a story about Malik punching her so the police would lock him up to keep him safe for a while.

Then on Aug. 21, Monique Causey woke to discover her son had sneaked out of the house. Before she could find him, someone ended his life with a bullet to the back of his head a few blocks away.

"I went to him and cried and told him he wouldn't make it," Causey said. "But this fighting, jumping on people ... this is all fun for them. This is what they like to do, you know, so how can you stop them?"

Malik Causey was one of 91 homicide victims in Chicago in August, the deadliest month in the city in two decades and the latest milestone for a metropolis becoming known for its murder rate. Already, killings here have jumped 46 percent over the same period last year, climbing past the 500 mark -- a total larger than Los Angeles and New York combined.

An analysis of the August toll shows more clearly than ever who's dying in the Chicago slaughter and what's behind it: surging violence in a handful of the city's most impoverished neighborhoods, which are riven by loosely organized street gangs.

Young African-American men are the chief victims. In a city that's one-third black, the overwhelming majority of those murdered in August -- 71 -- were, like Malik, African American. Another 11 had Hispanic surnames. Almost half were in their teens or early 20s.

And more than 70 percent of those shot to death appeared on the Chicago police's "Strategic Subject List," which includes 1,400 people considered likely targets of violence based on gang involvement or criminal record.

To those outside Chicago, the rising murder toll might suggest a city wracked by widespread violence, but August portrays a much narrower picture of tit-for-tat attacks among gang members, with bystanders sometimes caught in the crossfire.

"People are arguing on Facebook over the color of some girl's hair, real simple things ... and they carry guns, and when they finally catch each other, that's how it be," said Derrick House, 51, a former gang member and ex-convict who now works trying to prevent violence. "When they see the person they looking for, they don't care who else is out there -- old people and kids -- they just start shooting."

Tuesday, Aug. 23, provided a particular glimpse of how the city's murder toll steadily grew. On that day, Victor Mata, 22, a member of a faction of the Satan Disciples, was found dead in the front yard of a house -- the fourth time he had been shot in recent years.

Christopher Hibbler, 42, who belonged to the Black P Stones street gang, died when people in a car sprayed gunfire at the corner where he was standing.

Tykina Ali, 20, was shot when someone opened fire on her boyfriend's car.

Johnell Johnson, 37, a member of the Black Gangsters on the city's West Side, was found dead in the street, shot in the face.