Chicago New Year's Violence: 3 Dead, 15 Injured In Shootings That Signal Grim Start To 2013

On only the second day of the new year, Chicago has already tallied three homicides, with 15 more injured in New Year's Day violence.

Twenty year-old Octavius Dontrell Lamb became the city's first homicide victim of 2013 when he was shot and killed in a Noble Square alley, reports NBC Chicago.

Police responded to the 700 block of North Noble Street around 3:45 a.m. Tuesday, where the Sun-Times reports Lamb was found bleeding with a gunshot wound to the throat. He died less than an hour later at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

The next homicide came in the afternoon, when a 29-year-old Bronzeville man was shot in the head around 2:45 pm. in the 4500 block of South Champlain Avenue in the Grand Boulevard neighborhood, reports Fox Chicago. The Sun-Times said the victim, identified as Kevin Jemison, later died at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

Around 5 p.m. in Gage Park, 19-year-old Devonta Grisson was killed in a drive-by shooting in the 5800 block of South Sacramento Avenue.

At an Action Against Violence rally at St. Sabina Church Tuesday, Fox reported Father Michael Pfleger telling the crowd, "we gotta deal with guns."

The anti-gun rallying cry was echoed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel who, according to NBC, called the New Year's shootings "an unfortunate and tragic milestone," and said the violence "serves as a reminder of the damage that illegal guns and conflicts between gangs cause in our neighborhoods."

Fifteen other non-fatal shootings were reported around the city's South and West sides between the early morning hours and early evening.