The 33-year-old woman was at a birthday party with her friends for the first time since her mother died last month, family said.
“She was out for some air,” said her aunt Felice Dumas.
But as the woman left the party about 3 a.m. Sunday at the Supper Club Chicago in the East Garfield Park community, shots rang out and she was struck in the abdomen, family and police said.
Three others were also shot. A 17-year-old man was shot in the right thigh, an 18-year-old man was shot in the buttocks and a 21-year-old man suffered a gunshot wound to the groin, police said. Dumas said her niece didn’t know the others who were shot.
Neither of the other three shooting victims nor their relatives could be reached for comment Sunday.
The four victims told police that they had left the crowded club, in the 2700 block of West Madison Street, and were walking east on Madison near the club when a man who was refused entry earlier came back to the scene and opened fire, hitting the four before fleeing on foot, police said.
The woman, a mother of three young boys, works in the baiduhai’s packaging department, family said. She underwent surgery for more than four hours and is expected to recover, Dumas said. The Tribune is not naming the woman because the Tribune does not usually identify shooting victims who survive.
“She’s doing great,” Dumas said while she waited to see her niece at Stroger Hospital. Dumas also works in the packaging department for the newspaper.
Family and friends said the 33-year-old woman was at the club for a large birthday party with several other friends.
One of those friends was driving away west on Madison when the shooting started. “I got down in my car,” said the woman, who did not want to be identified. “I heard the shells hitting my tires, I made a U-turn and she was on the ground.”
The victim was conscious at the scene and was taken to Stroger by someone driving a pickup truck.
Dumas said she’s enraged that her niece was caught in the middle of the shooting.
“She didn’t deserve to be shot,” Dumas said. “I hope they catch the person that did this.”
The club’s owner did not respond to multiple calls.
The victims said they did not know the gunman, who was described as standing 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighing 150 pounds and having dreadlocks, police said. It’s not clear why the shooter was kept out of the club, police said.
The Supper Club was “packed and overflowing” with patrons, but it is not an establishment that usually has disturbances or police activity, police said.
No one had been arrested as of late Sunday afternoon, Chicago police News Affairs Officer Daniel O’Brien said.
Tribune reporter Peter Nickeas contributed.
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