2 dead, 5 wounded in Chicago shootings: 'She told me she couldn't breathe'

0 0 Julius Choudhury May 28, 2018 Edit this post

By Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas and Madeline Buckley, Chicago Tribune

Bystanders at a nearby party sat with a woman as she struggled to breath with a gunshot wound to the neck.

A group of people were standing outside a small, white house in the South Side's West Woodlawn neighborhood when the woman ran toward them from across the street, and collapsed on the grass in front of the home, witnesses said.

The woman, 20, was shot around midnight on Monday in the 6400 block of South Eberhart Avenue, police said. She was rushed to University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition.

Police said she was on the sidewalk talking with someone when she was shot by someone in a passing black Pontiac Grand Prix.

After she fell, the partygoers called 911, and crouched around the woman.

"She told me she couldn't breathe," said a woman who sat with her while they waited for an ambulance.

The woman, who did not want to give her name, said the woman who was shot was losing consciousness by the time paramedics arrived.

She had been visiting friends on the block, and enjoying the warm weather outside when she saw the woman fall to the ground.

"It's a nice day. She shouldn't have been shot," the woman said. "People should be able to socialize outside."

The woman was among seven people shot, two fatally, in Chicago on Sunday and early Monday, including a 15-year-old boy.

The shootings followed more than a dozen gun attacks from Saturday night into Sunday morning. The long holiday weekend already has seen 30 shootings, six of which were fatal.

In the city's most recent homicide, a 31-year-old man, identified as Jeremy Ross, of the 200 block of Calumet Boulevard in Harvey, was shot and killed around 1 a.m. Monday in the 5100 block of West Flournoy Street in the South Austin neighborhood on the West Side, police said.

The man was in a vehicle with another male when they got out of the car and began arguing, according to police. The male shot him twice in the chest and once in the head. He was pronounced dead on scene at 1:11 a.m.

The shooter is not in custody and was driving a green Kia Soul.

In an earlier homicide, a man was found shot to death in a vehicle in the Bronzeville neighborhood early Sunday.

Police first were called to the 5000 block of South Drexel Boulevard about 8 a.m., according to authorities. There, they found a man inside a vehicle with a gunshot wound to the chest who already had died as a result of his injuries, police said. Officials did not say what type of vehicle he was found in, who called in the information or how long the man is believed to have been there before he was found.

Detectives were investigating the scene as a homicide but released few details. The man's age also had not been released. Officials said the body was still at the location about 9 a.m. as the investigation continued.

No arrests had been made.

A 15-year-old boy was shot in the lower back, both hips and upper body around 11:10 p.m. Sunday in the Heart of Chicago neighborhood on the West Side, police said.

The boy was walking toward a car when a dark minivan pulled up, and someone inside shouted a gang-related slogan and fired shots. He was taken to Stroger Hospital where he was stabilized.

In other shootings:

-Just after 7:10 p.m., a man was shot in the northbound lanes of the Dan Ryan Expressway and suffered injuries that were not life threatening, according to Illinois State Police. The circumstances of the shooting were not immediately known.

-On the Near North Side, a 15-year-old boy was shot in the arm in the 1300 block of North Hudson Avenue in the Old Town neighborhood about 7:40 p.m. The boy was taken to Lurie Children's hospital in good conditio, police said.

-About 5:40 p.m., a 29-year-old woman suffered a gunshot wound when she said she sat on a gun and it accidentally discharged in the 5600 block of South Honore Street in the West Englewood neighborhood, police said. The woman was taken to University of Chicago Medical Center.

Check back for updates.