CHICAGO (AP) - On the weekend county pathologists conducted autopsies on the bodies of actress Jennifer Hudson's mother and brother, they also examined the bodies of six other people who'd been gunned down or beaten to death.

Five of them died in Chicago, as did the Oscar winner's mother, Darnell Donerson, her brother, Jason Hudson, and 7-year-old Julian King, whose body was found Monday. Like Hudson's relatives, three died on the city's South Side - one, an 18-year-old woman shot in the face, just a little more than two miles away.

The deaths are yet another reminder of the bloodshed on the city's streets this year - when Chicago has seen more homicides than either New York or Los Angeles. And they go a long way toward explaining why residents of Hudson's childhood neighborhood say it's not surprising to hear people say they may have heard the crackle of gunfire coming from her family home but didn't bother to call police.

“You hear gunshots day and night, that's nothing new,” said Ken Rasheeda, a 38-year-old telemarketer who grew up in the same Englewood neighborhood, where he and his wife are now raising three children. “There's been times I heard gunshots and I didn't think twice about it, it's so common.”

Englewood may not carry the notorious national reputation of old Chicago public housing complexes like the Robert Taylor Homes or Cabrini Green. But as part of the police department's 7th District it's one of the most violent areas of the city, ranking at or near the top this year in numbers of murders, sexual assaults and robberies. In fact, between January and August, 2,083 violent crimes occurred in the district - more than in any of the city's 24 other districts.

The predominantly black neighborhood is at once less than 10 miles from downtown and a world away. While gang violence made headlines when it erupted this summer in Grant Park, the city's showroom and the site of Sen. Barack Obama's election night party, such episodes are part of Englewood's landscape. And gunfire is part of the soundtrack.

People congregated this week outside the house where the bodies of Hudson's mother and brother were found. As the number of stuffed animals, balloons and flowers left against the front fence reached the hundreds, area residents said what happened inside, though tragic, is all too common.

“Because Jennifer Hudson lived here once upon a time you got all these people, all these teddy bears,” said Christine Baines, an area resident holding her toddler daughter. “We lost five people in one house in April,” she noted, talking about five people shot to death during a home invasion that already has faded into the distant memory of many Chicagoans.

Some residents claim the neighborhood also does not get police attention equal to that of other, more affluent area.

“On the North Side, you call police and they're out there in 5, 10 minutes,” said Howard Denham, a 33-year-old security guard who grew up across the street from the Hudson house and now lives on the city's North Side. “Somebody fires a fire cracker and police are out with guns drawn.”

Others, though, say residents also bear responsibility if they know of or suspect violent crime.

“Maybe a phone call could have saved someone's life,” Baines said of Friday's shootings at the Hudson family home.

Police say they do their best to protect each of Chicago's neighborhood and note that on Friday, officers were at the scene five minutes after they were called.

“We work every case hard,” Superintendent Jody Weis said.

Chicago police took William Balfour, 27, the estranged husband of Jennifer Hudson's sister, Julia Hudson, into custody Friday for questioning in the killings and has been called a “person of interest.” He was transferred to state custody Sunday and is being held on a parole violation. No one has been charged in the slayings.

Weis said he understands people are sometimes reluctant to get involved, even when they hear gunfire.

“That's the constant challenge we face all the time,” he said.

Weis, who took his job with a mandate to clean up the image of the department tarnished by a string of incidents such as an off-duty officer who allegedly beat a female bartender, knows a big part of his job is to restore public trust.

It was a large part of his message when he addressed a city council committee last week to talk about how 700 new block clubs have been formed with 2,500 community volunteers.

“That's why I'm trying to walk the communities every Friday night, to get out to make people comfortable calling us,” Weis said.

While police have characterized the Hudson family killings as “domestic related,” not random violence, neighborhood residents said they still hold out hope the global attention paid to the deaths could prompt people to call police, look out for each other and report suspicious behavior.

But they don't hold out much hope.

“For a few months or so people will straighten up, but then, believe me, after a couple of months it's back to the same routine,” said Rasheed, who, looking down at his 1-year-old son asleep in his stroller, vowed to move his young family out of the only neighborhood he's ever called home.

Kevin Bennett, who grew up across the street from the Hudsons and counted them as friends, agreed. Not long after the television news crews leave, he thinks the neighborhood will return to the same violent place it's been for years.

Which is why he keeps coming back to the last time he saw Jason Hudson two or three weeks ago.

Bennett said he had asked his friend: “Why are you still here, man?”

CHICAGO (AP) - Friends and family will fill Jennifer Hudson's childhood church Sunday to mourn the Oscar-winning actress' mother, brother, and nephew.

Jennifer Hudson and her sister Julia Hudson aren't expected to attend the memorial service. The services will begin at 3 p.m. and open to the public at 4 p.m.

Funeral services for Darnell Hudson, Jason Hudson, and Julian Hudson are to be held Monday. The three were found fatally shot late last month.

No one has been charged in the killings. Police confirmed Friday they found the gun used in the three killings in a vacant lot on the city's West Side.

Authorities have called Julia Hudson's estranged husband, 27-year-old William Balfour, a “person of interest.” Balfour is in custody on a parole violation