An innocent bystander who was among four people shot in one West Side attack Friday in the Brighton Park neighborhood has been identified, authorities said.
Arturo Zizumbo, 47, was pronounced dead at 3:40 p.m. Friday in a shooting that also killed Daniel H. Torres, 17, and wounded two other people in the 4300 block of South Rockwell Street, authorities said. Zizumbo, of the 4200 block of South Maplewood Avenue, died of a gunshot wound to the head, the Cook County medical examiner’s office determined Saturday.
The shooting took place about 3:30 p.m. Friday near Shields Elementary School.
Authorities said several known gang members were gathered in front of a taco stand on Rockwell when a silver car drove through an alley next to the business and parked across the street at the mouth of an alley.
Then at least two gunmen got out of the car and opened fire on the group, fatally striking Torres and Zizumbo a short distance away, according to police and the medical examiner’s office.
An 18-year-old man suffered a gunshot wound and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in serious condition, and another 17-year-old boy who was shot in the face and neck was in critical condition at Mount Sinai, police said.
The 47-year-old suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead on the scene. Torres, of the 4200 block of South Fairfield Avenue, also suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai.
At the scene, Zizumbo’s body lay in snow underneath a blue covering being dusted with snowfall in a curb outside a corner store called Mercado 43.
Zizumbo was a well-known figure who could be seen walking with a limp through the neighborhood, a form of therapy for a stroke he suffered several years ago, his close friends said.
“Arturo was a fixture on that corner, he was just a happy man,” said Ald. Raymond Lopez, 15th.
A man who grew up in the neighborhood said Zizumbo cared about the families who lived there and took a dim view of gang strife that had engulfed the area.
“He once told my father ‘These gang (expletives) are going to kill us one of these days,’ ” the man said at a convenience store across from the elementary school. Neighbors said the man could be found most days walking to the taco stand for a cup of coffee or visiting a nearby business that hosted karaoke.
Lopez called the taco stand a “problem building,” saying it was a well-known hangout for local gang members and that he’d worked with police and different city agencies since August 2015 to have the business shut down but without success.
“And now because of this, we have an innocent man killed. This is unacceptable,” Lopez said.
The alderman said he was further troubled by the use of a “machine pistol” by one of the gunman that he said resembles a handgun, but fires assault rifle ammunition at rapid speeds. A similar weapon was recently recovered in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, another part of Lopez’s ward, but this was the first appearance of the weapon in Brighton Park.
“There’s no reason for a weapon like this to be on the street,” Lopez said. At least 30 bullet shell casings were found at the scene.
Aside from detectives canvassing the area an hour after the shooting, the block where the shooting occurred was quiet with only one homeowner standing watch as police lights flashed in the distance.
The woman, who asked not to be identified, said she’d lived on the block more than 10 years and called it a hotbed of gang activity and the longtime home of the Satan’s Disciples gang. She said neighbors didn’t dare linger outside so long after a gang shooting in an area local residents called “Devil’s Playground.”
Prior to Friday, Brighton Park had had 56 shootings this year, according to data compiled by the Tribune, about 11 more than 2015, and eight homicides, doubling last year’s total.
