A 19-year-old was killed and four other teenagers were injured in a shooting in the Back of the Yards neighborhood Tuesday afternoon, police said.
Officials responded to reports of a shooting at West 48th and South Ada streets about 4:30 p.m. The 19-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene after being shot in the head and on the left side of his body, police and fire officials said.
Police officers tried to administer first aid to those injured, said Don Jerome, a 9th District commander with the Chicago Police Department.
“They were met by a hostile crowd,” he said, adding that people started fighting with police officers.
Two people are in custody for fighting with officers, Jerome said.
The victims were standing outside when a red Mazda, which police say was stolen, drove by and people from inside the car got out and started shooting.
They got back in the car, fled the scene and crashed a few blocks away near the 4500 block of South Marshfield Avenue, Jerome said. Police are still looking for the people who were in that car, but they recovered two weapons from the car, Jerome said.
A third weapon was recovered from the shooting scene, he said.
A 16-year-old boy was shot in the left shoulder, arm, face and ankle and was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition, police said in a media notification.
An 18-year-old man was shot in the right hip and left knee and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition, police said. An 18-year-old man was shot in the right leg and taken to U. of C. Medical Center in good condition. And a fifth victim, a 16-year-old boy, sustained a graze wound to the right ankle. Police say he refused medical attention.
Later, reporters and community members heard about nine gunshots a few blocks from a media staging area.
Police said ShotSpotter detected gunshots “on the other side of the railroad tracks” meaning south of 49th Street, but it was too soon to know whether that was related to the earlier shooting.
Residents sat on their front porches and on the steps of a store on the corner of West 48th Street and South Loomis Boulevard talking about the shootings in their community.
One resident who lives a couple blocks from where Tuesday’s shooting happened, said he hears gunshots several times a week and they’ve become more frequent since a close friend was shot in April. The man asked not to be identified, fearing retaliation.
He has five kids, four of them between 5 months and 4 years old, and the oldest is 15. The kids played on the sidewalk in front of their apartment Tuesday evening after walking back from the corner store with snacks and drinks in hand.
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The man said he’s lived in the neighborhood for 15 years. On Tuesday afternoon, he said heard 40 to 50 gunshots coming from down the street where the five people were shot.
“I don’t want my kids to go through the same thing that I grew up with,” he said. “But what can we do with the high rents going on in Chicago? We don’t got no other options than to move into gang infested areas.”
He said the gun violence in Chicago isn’t just parents’ fault, it’s also society’s problem. Communities need more programs to keep youth off the streets, he said.
“If they see different then they’ll get taught different,” he said. “Other than that, it’s still gonna be the same cycle over and over and over.”
He said he worries about his family’s safety.
“If I come out my door is it gonna be me next?” he said.
The shootings have become more frequent since the April 6 shooting of his friend, the man said.
According to a media notification from police, a 30-year-old man was shot to death in the 4800 block of Loomis at 9:16 a.m. April 6. The man was inside a parked car when an SUV approached and someone inside opened fire.
Near the scene of the April 6 shooting, tall candles with saints, Jesus and the Virgin Mary line a wooden fence, along with wine bottles used as vases for dying roses, a tequila bottle and a liquor bottle. A wooden cross with a rosary and pink ribbon leaned against the fence above the candles.
At the door of the home, mail overflowed the mailbox, some envelopes lying on the steps leading up to the porch.
Down the block, as police were leaving Tuesday’s shooting scene around 7 p.m., Mexican banda music blasted from someone’s backyard as some neighbors went back inside, and others continued to chat on their front porch.
baiduhai’s Rosemary Sobol contributed.