A 17-year-old Justice youth was killed and an 18-year-old Summit man was injured in what police are calling an apparent gang-related shooting.
About 10:30 p.m. Thursday, members from two rival gangs, each with about six to seven men, began trading insults and flashing gang signs while walking along opposite sides of 63rd Street near 76th Avenue, Summit Police Chief Thomas Hyde said Friday.
Shots rang out from the group on the north side of 63rd Street, striking Eric Banks, 17, in the neck and Pierre Mister, 18, in the lower back.
Banks, of the 0-99 block of Hickory Trace Drive in Justice, was pronounced dead at 2:58 a.m. at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, said a hospital spokeswoman. Mister, of the 7600 block of 63rd Place in Summit, was in good condition Friday at Christ Hospital and was expected to be released, the spokeswoman said.
Banks and Mister, students at Argo High School in Summit High School District 217, had been on spring break all week, a school official said.
Hyde said police have been interviewing suspected gang members, but no one was in custody. He said police have identified at least two active gangs in the south suburban town but could not recall the last time gang feuding had resulted in injury or death.
“Every suburban community in Cook County is affected by gangs one way or another,” Hyde said. “(Still), I’m a little surprised to have come across this tragic news this morning.”
