Shootout Erupts at Chicago Funeral, Wounding 14

July 22, 2020

Gunfire was exchanged between a black vehicle and attendees at a funeral on Chicago's South Side, sending more than a dozen people to the hospital in serious to critical condition.

By Peter Nickeas, Paige Fry, Morgan Greene and Jeremy Gorner

Source Chicago Tribune

Chicago police secure the scene of a shooting in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood Tuesday. At least 14 people were taken to area hospitals after gunfire was exchanged outside of a funeral home.

CHICAGO—Fourteen people were shot Tuesday evening in the Gresham neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side and one person was in custody, authorities said.

At about 6:30 p.m., shots were fired at attendees of a funeral in the 1000 block of 79th Street from a black vehicle speeding west, according to First Deputy Superintendent Eric Carter, who spoke at the scene Tuesday night.

The funeral attendees exchanged gunfire with those in the vehicle, he said. The vehicle then turned north on Carpenter Street, and shots continued to be fired at the funeral attendees, Carter said, before the vehicle crashed midway down the block. Those inside the vehicle fled, he said.

A neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said it sounded like multiple weapons were used in the shooting.

The neighbor said multiple victims fell in front of a liquor store between a laundry and a funeral home on 79th Street, and many were bleeding.

Fourteen victims were being treated at five area hospitals, Carter said.

Most were in serious to critical condition when they were taken to the hospital, according to Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.

Carter said there were 60 shell casings on the scene. The number of shooters was still being determined by detectives, he said.

All known victims were adults, Carter said.

Authorities did not say who the funeral was for or what the motive may have been.

Carter said there was a police presence at the funeral due to its size, but it was unclear whether a squad car was present at the time of the shooting. Police often assign beat cars to funerals for homicide victims.

The Tuesday shooting marked one of Chicago’s worst in recent memory.

Last year, 13 people were wounded, four of them critically, during a shooting inside a memorial gathering in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side.

In 2013, two gunmen opened fire at Cornell Square Park in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, injuring 13 people, including a 3-year-old.

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