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“I saw one person hit the floor immediately, and then a couple more started scattering and running toward where we were,” said the girls’ mother, 28, who lives in the 4800 block of South Ada Street where the shooting occurred around 4:30 p.m.
None of her daughters were hurt but five teens were hit by the gunfire, including a 19-year-old who was shot in the head and died.
The attack was the first of two mass shootings that occurred five hours apart on the South Side. The second occurred about five miles away in Jackson Park and wounded six people. By day’s end, at least 21 people were shot across Chicago.
In the Back of the Yards shooting, police say a group of teens were standing outside when gunmen approached in a stolen red Mazda and opened fire.
WATCH: Chicago police update on 5 shot in Back of the Yards
The 19-year-old was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Hospital; 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; an 18-year-old man was shot in the right hip and left knee and taken to Mount Sinai in critical condition; another 18-year-old man was shot in the right leg and taken to the University of Chicago in good condition; a second 16-year-old boy was grazed in the right ankle but refused medical attention.
The gunmen crashed a few blocks away in the 4500 block of South Marshfield Avenue, Chicago Police Cmdr. Don Jerome told reporters Tuesday evening. A SWAT team was called to help search for suspects and three weapons were recovered.
Jerome told reporters rival gangs have been fighting in the area. As he spoke, officers searched for suspects in a nearby alley where 22-year-old Jamarion Loston was found fatally shot less than a week earlier.
A scuffle broke out between police and some onlookers who thought police were not performing life-saving measures on the victims. The mother of the girls, who did not want to be identified, said officers were “standing around, talking and laughing.”
“They weren’t trying to do compressions or CPR on the kids that were shot,” she told the Sun-Times. “That’s when the people of the community started getting reckless.”
But Jerome said officers were tending to the wounded. He said two people were arrested.
Mario Sanders, 20, was charged with aggravated battery to a peace officer after they said he pushed an on-duty Chicago police officer to the ground and punched another in the face, causing minor injuries to both officers.
The mother said she’s known the 16-year-old boy hospitalized at the University of Chicago for five years.
“He has been involved in some unfortunate circumstances, but he helped move in my furniture, played with my kids and bought them water balloons,” she said. “He’s a really sweet kid, that’s why I’m so devastated about this.”
WLS-TV contributed to this report.
Source: ( Sun-Times Media Wire – Copyright Chicago Sun-Times 2022.)
