IN CHICAGO, KILLING KEEPS UP A RAPID PACE

CHICAGO, Oct. 23 - Though it may lose its title as the nation's most
murderous city to Los Angeles this year, Chicago is still on a pace that
almost matches the number of homicides it logged last year.

Last year, 72 of the city's 666 homicides - the most in the nation -
occurred in the Harrison precinct, making it the city's deadliest police
district. So far this year, according to police figures, Harrison has had
51 homicides, about 10 percent of the 519 killings reported as of Tuesday
in the city's 25 police districts.

The 519 homicides actually represent a 3 percent decline from the 535
recorded in the same period last year. But the count still puts the city's
homicide toll on pace to exceed more than 600 by year's end.

Of this year's homicides, 415 people have died from gunshot wounds. In
cases where the motives were known, 116 homicides were gang related. David
J. Bayless, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department, said the number
of cases linked to gangs was likely to increase significantly as the police
concluded investigations into other homicides.

Mr. Bayless said the department responded to last year's surge in killings
by increasing patrols in the city's most troubled neighborhoods, including
those in the Harrison police district. Also, he said, the police intensify
enforcement in small areas over three- to four-day periods. Officials said
their efforts have netted hundreds of arrests and have helped them solve
some homicides.

Even with the success of law enforcement over the last decade in
dismantling the "hierarchy of many of these gangs," Mr. Bayless said, the
violence has not subsided among those who remain on the street and have
stepped in to fill the void.

The gangs are "all very fragmented now," Mr. Bayless said. "And because
they're fragmented, there's more infighting. We're also seeing that the
loyalty is no longer to the organization. It's to that drug spot and it's
to the money."

The Harrison district, which includes the West Garfield neighborhood,
features modest or crumbling single-family homes, apartment buildings and
vacant lots that remain scarred and barren since the fires of 1968. It is a
neighborhood where gunshots echo in broad daylight, where conspicuous young
men with busy hands transact deals with pausing motorists and where
children seek the refuge of schools like George W. Tilton Elementary School
on Keeler Avenue.

"I know it's bad, but I don't let it stop me from doing my job and from
doing things for my children," Leatrice Satterwhite, the school's principal
said last Friday, adding that Tilton offers before- and after-school
programs for the children. "The kids view the school as a safe haven."

It is all pervasive, the drugs, gangs and violence.

On Oct. 6, Charles H. Watson, 23, was found in a shallow, weed-covered
grave between abandoned houses on the West Side. The police say they
believe he was abducted and beaten to death four months earlier by fellow
gang members in a dispute over drug money.

The gang and drug competitions lead to conflict, and the conflict often
leads to gunfire - something with which the children at Tilton are all too
familiar.

In fact, Ms. Satterwhite said that last Thursday she summoned the police to
the school after shots rang out just down the street shortly before classes
were dismissed. The police said a 16-year-old boy suffered nonfatal
injuries in that shooting, which they believe was gang related.

On Friday, as third graders lined up in a hall about lunchtime, the haven
the school provided was symbolized by a green banner that hung high for all
to see. It read, "You are about to enter a learning zone."

Another sign hung on a wall nearby. A stark reminder of the dangers
outside, it carried the portrait of a small child and the plea: "Don't
shoot. I want to grow up."