'War zone': 14 injured in crossfire as Chicago funeral attendees fire back at drive-by shooters

RT
Thu, 23 Jul 2020 19:37 UTC

© Reuters / Jim Young

FILE PHOTO.

Fourteen people have been injured in a shooting at a funeral home in Chicago, Illinois, according to police. The incident saw an exchange of gunfire between attendees and the assailants, who fled the scene and remain at large.

The incident unfolded on Tuesday evening in Chicago's Auburn Gresham community on the South Side, where police superintendent Eric Carter said more than a dozen people were shot outside a funeral home, noting that the victims are being treated at 5 different area hospitals.

While Carter did not elaborate on the extent of the injuries, the Chicago Fire Department earlier said all were in serious or critical condition.

Carter said attendees of a memorial service in progress at the time of the shooting fired back at the attackers, who sped away in a black vehicle before crashing and fleeing on foot. None of the suspects have been identified, but police said a person of interest is now being questioned in custody.

A local reporter on the scene said there were "dozens of dozens" of shell casings visible on the ground in the aftermath of the incident, also citing a resident who said it sounded like "multiple weapons" were used in the shooting. Carter confirmed that 60 casings had been recovered, though did not elaborate on the number of shooters.

While the police spokesman offered few additional details on the motive behind the shooting, reports suggest it took place during or soon after a memorial service at the funeral home, where the deceased was also said to have been a shooting victim.

Detectives will continue to canvass the crime overnight, the superintendent added, while calling on the public for any information they might have on the incident.

Comment: There was another shooting several hours after the one above. See:

3yo girl shot in Chicago after bloody funeral parlor shootout

A three-year-old girl was seriously injured early Wednesday morning in Chicago, not long after a bloody shootout outside a South Side funeral home left 15 people injured. No arrests have been made in either incident.

The toddler was shot in the head around 12:45am local time on Wednesday morning as her parents drove down East 74th Street, also receiving scratches to the eye - possibly from broken glass caused by the bullets shattering the car window, police told local media.

Two suspects are said to have fired in the direction of the car from the street corner. Their identities remain unknown, and no one has been arrested in connection with the shooting. Additionally, police are unsure of the intended target of the attack.

The incident took place just hours after a mass shooting outside a South Side funeral home on Tuesday night left 15 people injured after mourners fired back at the shooter's vehicle. The funeral, in a sad irony, was for the victim of another shooting last week in the city's Englewood neighborhood. A police car was present due to the large number of people attending the funeral, but this apparently didn't deter the attackers - whose identities remain unknown - from shooting up the mourners.

No arrests have been made in connection with the violence, police said in a Tuesday night press conference, but one person has been taken in for questioning. They reported one victim was in "extremely critical condition" and another was in critical condition, while the rest are expected to recover.

Chicago, which has some of the strictest gun laws in the US, also has one of the country's highest murder rates. More than 63 people were shot over the weekend in the city, 12 of them fatally, a pattern that is increasingly being echoed in other cities across the nation.

President Donald Trump recently announced plans to deploy Department of Homeland Security agents to Chicago in an attempt to get a handle on the surge in violent crime. The president has already sent a bevy of agents to Portland, where violent protesters have threatened a federal courthouse and other local government buildings on a nightly basis, and has stated he is eyeing other cities run by "liberal Democrats" for more muscular law enforcement.