Classmates of a 15-year-old student shot and wounded Tuesday night on the Southeast Side said they are scared to be out in their neighborhood, where many of the buildings are adorned with gang symbols and where gang violence seems commonplace.
Some students of Global Visions Academy are even afraid to walk to school, especially after Eric Reed was shot just blocks from campus, at 2710 East 89th Street.
“[There] was a just a big gang fight yesterday,” senior Jasmine Lofton, 18, said after school Wednesday. “It’s really about to be something when it gets hot.”
Reed was the second Chicago Public Schools student in the South Chicago neighborhood to be shot in less than a week.
Adamnesha Harris, 12, was wounded in the back Thursday in the 8800 block of South Houston Avenue, the unintended victim of a gang rivalry, police said.
Reed, a freshman at Global Visions, was shot twice in the chest and once in the foot shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday in the 8800 block of South Exchange Avenue. He was standing with at least two other teens when someone came out from a gangway and opened fire, authorities said.
The teen was in serious condition Wednesday at University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital and was expected to survive, police said.
Dontrice Thomas, Tenier Bailey and Brandis Samuels could see the flashing lights of a police camera on the corner as they stood less than a block from where their friend was shot. All three have known Reed since attending grammar school at Mireles Academy, the same school Adamnesha attends.
The students said grief counselors were made available at the high school Wednesday.
“[The grief counselor] told us to stop crying and that everything was going to be OK,” said Thomas, 15.
Reed is known for his sense of humor and always playing around, said Robin Ivy, 16, who said she was surprised that he was the victim of gun violence. Bailey, also 16, agreed: “He’s like a comedian. Everybody wants to go to school just so he can make them laugh.”
The motive in Reed’s shooting is still under investigation. The shooter was wearing all black clothing with a black scarf or mask, police said.
Police said the area where both shootings occurred is known for gang conflict.
More Top Picks Best Kids Atvs For Beginners
Earlier Tuesday, a 25-year-old man was shot in his arm while sitting in his vehicle near 86th Street and Jeffery Boulevard, also in the South Chicago police district. The incidents were not thought to be related, however.
Antonio Salazar, a CAPS organizer for the district, said the weather may be a factor in the recent rise in gun violence.
“Suddenly, these things happen when it gets warm,,” Salazar said.
But Reed’s friend and classmate Samuels knows that safety in her neighborhood is an issue all year.
“My mother got shot just a few weeks ago in this neighborhood,” said Samuels, who wants to go to a school where she will feel safer.
“My mother is scared to come outside now.”
———–