Seven people were wounded, two fatally, in a mass shooting overnight in the New City neighborhood, authorities said.
A group of people were standing outside in the 5100 block of South Wood Street just before 12:30 a.m. Friday morning when two gunmen approached and opened fire, police said.
Wentworth area detectives were investigating the shooting in connection with a street gang conflict between a group of Satan’s Disciples and Gangster Disciples, according to a police report obtained by the Tribune.
According to a police source, the men wore masks as they walked down the block and started shooting. Two male victims, whose ages were not immediately known, sustained fatal injuries, police said. The first victim was shot in his head, chest and leg and transported to UChicago Medicine, where he was later pronounced dead. The second male was shot in his abdomen and pronounced dead at Mt. Sinai Hospital.
Neither man’s identity had been publicly released as of Friday morning. The shooting took place outside once of the dead men’s homes, according to a police source.
A 23-year-old woman was shot in her head and is listed in critical condition at Stronger Hospital.
A 54-year-old man was shot in his ankle and is listed in fair condition at Stroger Hospital.
A 32-year-old man was shot in his torso and is listed in good condition at UChicago Medicine.
A 30-year-old woman was shot in her thigh and hand and is listed in fair condition at Mr. Sinai Hospital.
A 21-year-old man was shot in his back and is listed in good condition at UChicago Medicine.
Just before 12:40 a.m., police and paramedics raced to the intersection of 51st Street and Wood Street. Two ambulances sat open as officers blocked the street with police tape.
First responders walked up Wood Street giving chest compressions to a person on a stretcher, their hands coated in blood. An empty stretcher wheeled by passing in the opposite direction.
Across the street, a man clutching a bloody rag slowly approached the intersection with his arm linked to a police officer. As the man walked onto the road, blood dripped down his back.
First responders approached with a second person receiving chest compressions. Their long dreadlocks hung off the stretcher.
Along 51st Street, a man paced with his arm slung over his head. More ambulances arrived. First responders brought out more victims: another person on a stretcher, a white sheet strewn across their lap; a man walking with the help of a police officer; a fourth person on a stretcher with an oxygen mask over their mouth.
While authorities and firemen surveyed the area, two women walked hand in hand through the intersection. They were barefoot.
To the west, another woman rushed towards the scene, crying as she got closer. She passed by a small crowd that had started to gather at a street corner. She kept crying.
By 2 a.m., the intersection began to clear. Police laid out evidence markers and established a perimeter with more tape. Bystanders left to find their cars.
When there were only police to be seen, a woman and two children crept towards the tape. They waited silently, eyes cast towards the blue police lights, until a sergeant asked if they were trying to go home. They said yes.
The sergeant escorted them through the intersection and down Wood Street. The woman walked with one child to her right and the other clutched in her arms as they strode out of view.
As detectives, evidence technicians and other police remained on the block, people lined the next block over, talking quietly and leaning against their cars.
The Tribune’s Armando Sanchez contributed.
