Thirteen people shot at memorial service in Chicago
CHICAGO — Chicago police are questioning a person of interest after 13 people were wounded, four of them critically, during a shooting inside a large memorial gathering early Sunday in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side, authorities said.
The shooting wounded more people than any other single shooting event in the city since at least 2013, when 13 people were shot in Back of the Yards, according to data gathered by the Tribune.
The violence began at about 12:40 a.m. at a house party commemorating the birthday of a man who died in a previous shooting. Someone at the party opened fire, sending 13 people to area hospitals, according to Chicago police.
The injured ranged in age from 16 to 48, and a 16-year-old boy was one of those in critical condition though it was later improved to “serious,” said Fred Waller, who heads the patrol division for Chicago police.
Two people remained in critical condition as of Sunday afternoon, according to Officer Michelle Tannehill, a police spokeswoman: a 40-year-old man who’d been shot in the chest and was being treated at the University of Chicago Hospital, and a 21-year old man suffering from a gunshot wound to the back, who was at St. Bernard Hospital.
Two people initially were detained and questioned after the shooting, though only one of the two is thought to have fired shots, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation. No charges have been announced.
The party was in honor of Lonell Irvin, a 22-year-old man fatally shot near the intersection of State Street and Ida B. Wells Drive during an attempted carjacking April 26 in the Loop, according to multiple people at the scene.
Authorities said Irvin was wielding his own gun when he attempted to carjack a man with a license to carry a concealed handgun, who police said grabbed his weapon from the glove compartment and shot Irvin in the head. Authorities at the time categorized the shooter, who likely was rearended in a ploy to steal his 2015 BMW, as the victim in the incident.
Waller said there was a dispute during the party and someone started shooting. Once people started running outside, video surveillance from a city police camera captured images of someone firing more shots outside the home.
A different person also was caught on surveillance video shooting at a vehicle, Waller said.
“From outside, definitely there was two different shooters,” Waller said. “It looked like they were just shooting randomly at people as they exited the party.”
Mayor Lori Lightfoot spoke to reporters outside the University of Chicago Hospital at 11 a.m. after visiting some of the victims being treated there, though she did not say how many people she met with or share details about their conversations. She was joined by Waller, in his second address to reporters in five hours, as both urged anyone with information to contact authorities.
“It’s a terrible tragedy and frankly an act of cowardice,” Lightfoot said. “People in that house know what happened and we urge them to overcome their fears and come forward with information.”
She asked those who witnessed the shooting to go to www.cpdtip.com to anonymously share what they saw.
“We can’t normalize this kind of behavior and tragedy in this city,” she said.
Lightfoot said police got to the scene quickly and are working to uncover more from the scene captured on video. She also spoke about the city’s ongoing violence, adding, “Solving disputes with a gun is never the right answer.”
According to Tribune records, the last shooting with 13 or more people injured happened in September 2013 in the Back of the Yards neighborhood.