At least five men were shot, three of them fatally, early Sunday when gunshots rang out at a Chicago intersection taken over by a drag racing caravan of more than 100 cars, police said.
The shooting erupted around 4 a.m. at an intersection in the Brighton Park area of the city’s southwest side, Cmdr. Chicago Police Department’s Don Jerome said at a press conference.
Gun violence in the nation’s third-largest city erupted despite a 20% drop in Chicago shootings through the end of the summer, Chicago says police crime statistics. Homicides also fell 16% from a year ago.
Bullet casings lie on the asphalt in an undated image.
STOCK IMAGE/Mahir Kart/Shutterstock
Jerome said officers were responding to complaints of a drag racing caravan in the area with cars peeling rubber and making donuts in the middle of an intersection.
“There was drifting in the middle of the street and about 100 cars had taken over the intersection,” Jerome said.
He said officers from one of the police department’s Strategic Decision Support Centers were monitoring the incident via a live video feed when they received a ShotSpotter gunshot detection alert from at minus 13 shots at the intersection and “people hitting the ground”.
Upon arriving at the scene, officers were told that five people had been shot and had all been taken to hospital in private vehicles.
Chicago Police Department Commander Don Jerome briefs the media on the shooting that erupted around 4 a.m. at an intersection in the Brighton Park neighborhood on the southwest side of Chicago on October 23, 2022.
Chicago Police Department
Jerome said four men with gunshot wounds were taken to Holy Cross Hospital and one to Mount Sinai Hospital.
He said three men were pronounced dead on arrival at hospital and two other men were in serious condition but expected to survive.
Two 20-year-old men were among those who died, police said. Authorities have not released the age of the third man who was shot. Their names were not immediately released.
The two men who were injured were described as 19 and 21 years old.
Investigators recovered multiple casings from the crime scene, suggesting more than one gunman was involved, Jerome said.
No arrests were immediately announced. Jerome said police are investigating whether some of those injured or killed were armed and fired during the incident.
“All three people who died had gang affiliations,” Jerome said.
He said police were looking for “one or two” people suspected of being involved in the shooting, adding that they “are not necessarily the ones at the hospital”.
Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez, who represents the area where the shooting occurred, called for a police crackdown on traveling drag racing trailers.
“It’s not just fun and street games,” Lopez said during Sunday’s press conference with Jerome. “We see gangs and crime joining drifting and drag racing.”