By Ray Sanchez, CNN

(CNN) — When a well-known and loved homeless man nicknamed “Pepe” was killed in the crossfire of a Chicago shooting outside her home on Labor Day weekend, Erica Hernandez woke up her six-year-old son and rushed him into a bathroom.

She quickly peered through the bathroom window. Up the dark and narrow alley adjacent to her home, she saw a man firing a gun. People were running. Some crouched behind cars. As she cowered with her two sons, the bang-bang-bang sounds reverberated off the squat brick buildings of the predominantly Latino Pilsen neighborhood southwest of downtown.

She dialed 911 from her cell phone, said Hernandez. No one answered.

“It was so crazy because it was so many gunshots,” said Hernandez, adding the street was later littered with dozens of shell casings. “I’m like, ‘No way this is all gunshots.’ I’ve never experienced anything like that.”

In a city where gun violence takes no holiday, Labor Day weekend was particularly deadly. Nearly 60 people were shot, including eight homicides, according to police – prompting President Donald Trump to call Chicago “the worst and most dangerous city in the World, by far.” The president, after warning for weeks that Chicago could be the next US city to see National Guard troops on its streets, said the feds were “going in.”

The Labor Day weekend shooting fatalities included Pedro Toledo Catalan, a 57-year-old with no known address, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office. In Pilsen, a diverse working-class neighborhood with a large Mexican American population, Toledo, who was born in Mexico, was a friendly fixture, with an untamed, graying beard and mane of hair.

For days, people have been holding vigils around a makeshift memorial on the Pilsen street where Toledo was killed: A cluster of candles and flowers. A sign with the words “R.I.P. Pepe” wrapped around a light pole. A framed photo of the homeless man.

Still, some immigrant residents have stayed away, worried that any day now Chicago could follow Los Angeles and Washington as targets of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. The administration has reserved the right to send in National Guard troops in addition to federal law enforcement officers.

“People are not viewing it as they’re going to come in to help our neighborhood be safer. It’s more like they’re coming in to help ICE,” said Hernandez, 40, whose family has lived on the block for decades, referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “People are scared now.”

‘Let’s go find Pepe’

The threats from Washington have faced pushback from residents and politicians, including Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who signed an executive order late last month providing guidance and directives urging city agencies to refrain from collaborating with the federal government.

Both Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker have criticized Trump for suggesting he would deploy federal forces to the city, pointing to what they said are historic reductions in overall crime in the nation’s third-largest city.

Last year, there were fewer than 600 homicides in Chicago, and so far this year there have been at least 274, according to city data.

Homicides in Chicago are down more than 30% this year compared to 2024 and shootings have fallen almost 40%, according to city data. Both are on pace to be among the lowest levels the city has seen in more than a decade.

Still, that translates to more than 1,200 people being shot and at least 274 murders, which are more than those reported in New York City and Los Angeles – two cities with much larger populations than Chicago.

In Pilsen – which has seen declining crime and increasing gentrification in recent years – people who bonded with Toledo have sought to provide him some dignity in death. He may have lacked a home and money, they said, but not friends.

“My 6-year-old son loved Pepe,” Hernandez said. “Whenever my son had any spare change, he’d be like, ‘Let’s go find Pepe.’”

After the shooting, Hernandez broke the news of Toledo’s death to her youngest child.

“I turned it into a learning opportunity, stressing ‘That’s why I tell you guns are bad,’” she said. “I told him there were two bad guys shooting guns at each other and unfortunately Pepe was struck by a bullet.”

Toledo was one of three people shot on the block where Hernandez lives about 1:40 a.m. Sunday of Labor Day weekend, according to police. Two other men – one was 41, the other 43 – sustained leg wounds but survived. No arrests have been made and detectives are investigating, police said.

Overall, 58 people were shot in Chicago that weekend, police said Saturday. The youngest was 14.

‘There is a lot of uncertainty right now’

Dalia Radecki, 78, a retired teacher who has lived in Chicago nearly six decades, hesitated when asked what she thought about Trump sending National Guard troops to Chicago.

“Well, you know what, to see this poor man that was loved by many being gunned down on the street where he slept is horrible. It’s heartbreaking,” she said, referring to “Pepe,” before a long pause.

“But I’m an immigration activist and what Trump is talking about doing is frightening all our community,” said Radecki, who is Mexican American and whose Mexico-born son-in-law she says was detained by ICE in May.

“But you know who Trump is, OK. I don’t trust Trump … People are scared. Many hardly come outside. There’s mothers that I take their kids to school because they’re afraid they’re going to get picked up. It’s sad.”

Ruben Mandujano, who owns Xoco House Gallery, an event venue in Pilsen, said he befriended “Pepe” decades ago. He often allowed the homeless man to rest in his old auto repair shop on cold winter days. Next Sunday, community members will celebrate his life with a memorial service at the event venue that was once Mandujano’s auto shop.

“Pepe was a very calm person, very friendly and innocent, too,” Mandujano said.

At vigils since the shooting, snippets of Pepe’s life story have emerged from conversations with some of his family members. Mandujano said he learned Pepe’s mental health began to decline after he was once beaten over the head with a stick. “Pepe” knew the artists, names and lyrics of many popular songs and at times played air guitar on the street. Hernandez said she learned he was a huge fan of Michael Jackson and Vanilla Ice. He came from a family of 16 children, she said.

“Pepe loved music,” said Stephany Colunga, 43, who has lived in Pilsen for 20 years. “Everyone really cared about him and took care of him in different ways.”

Colunga and a neighbor organized a GoFundMe campaign to pay for Pepe’s funeral expenses. The crowdfunding efforts raised nearly $9,500 before it was closed. The donations will pay for his cremation, memorial service and a mural, with the remaining money going to the Pilsen Food Pantry, Colunga said.

Violence in Pilsen has decreased in recent years, community members said.

“You see people going out to run, to walk their dogs, to spend time in the parks,” Mandujano said. “People feel safer but sometimes in a big city you have unfortunate incidents like this.”

“Many people have faith and confidence in the local authorities,” he said. “As for bringing in the National Guard, there are people who see it as necessary and others who disagree with it. There is a lot of uncertainty right now.”

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CNN’s Omar Jimenez, Andy Rose and Taylor Romine contributed to this report.